# UFFL

> A multidisciplinary academic fellowship focused on prolife scholarship

> Contact: sfeher@ridgefieldgroup.com

### Posts

#### (No Title)
In "Abortion and Social Justice: How Pro-Life Advocates are Meeting the Needs of Women Facing Crisis Pregnancies," the Christian Post covers the recent presentation by Fr. Joe Koterski, UFL board member, to the recent National Convention of Students for Life.
Joseph Koterski, associate professor of philosophy at Fordham University, urged the pro-life audience to "go out in evangelization, go out in charity, go out to those really and truly in need, and you will speak values." Only by reaching out in love will their arguments actually convince other people.

#### (No Title)
The University of La Verne College of Law Law Review Symposium on February 28, 2014, focused on "Cause Lawyering."  One of the panels focused on Reproductive Rights.  The panel of three persons consisted of a lawyer for the ACLU, a lawyer for Planned Parenthood, and Professor Lynn Wardle, a pro-life law professor and Board member of University Faculty for Life.  The University of La Verne College of Law Law Review will publish the timely-submitted papers in a symposium issue and Professor Wardle will submit his pro-life paper for publication.

- Lynn Wardle, wardlel@law.byu.edu

#### "A Chance to Challenge Roe?"
Here is a link to a good essay by Kevin Walsh analyzing the June Medical Services case, which the Supreme Court recently agreed to review.

Here is his concluding paragraph:

"Instead of expecting anything dramatic, look for Roberts to engage in a careful comparison and contrast of the record on review, which differs significantly for Louisiana’s law as compared with Texas’s in Whole Women’s Health. And expect facile comparisons between the two cases from people who have not done the reading. It is difficult to predict precisely what path a Supreme Court majority will take through the issues. But history and experience suggest some virtue in chastened aspirations for immediate Roe/Casey regime change."

#### "A Dutch euthanasia pioneer surveys the wreckage and despairs"
Here is a link to a good piece by Michael Cook exploring the views of Dr. Chabot about euthanasia in the Netherlands. Chabot was involved in an important case in the early 1990s that helped open the door to the legalization of euthanasia. But Chabot is concerned about the current practices. Cook reports: "Now Dr Chabot looks back and is horrified. Writing in one of the leading Dutch newspapers, ... he says that legal safeguards for euthanasia are slowly eroding away and that the law no longer protects people with psychiatric condition and dementia."

#### "A Reality Check on Assisted Suicide in Oregon"
Here  is a link to Richard Doerflinger's analysis of assisted suicide in Oregon. Here's a bit from his conclusion:

"In short, despite a thoroughly inadequate reporting system designed to cover up rather than reveal problems, Oregon shows exactly the problems that critics predicted: No meaningful protection against coercion, influence by others on patients with depression and dementia, an expansion beyond imminently dying patients, and a road toward active euthanasia."

#### "Abandoning the disabled to assisted suicide in the UK"
That is the title of a recent blog post by Wesley Smith. Here is the lead paragraph of the post--

"The UK is falling off a vertical moral cliff on the assisted suicide issue.  It remains a crime.  But the Public Prosecutor of England and Wales has stated that if, after a complete investigation, it is determined that family or others who assist suicides did it for an altruistic reason, there will be no prosecution.  Indeed, the death could even by accomplished by the assister, and nothing will be done."

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/07/14/abandoning-the-disabled-to-assisted-suicide-in-the-uk/

Richard M.

#### "Aborting the Wanted Child"
Here is a link to an essay by Paul Sullins describing his new study on abortion and mental health. (I mentioned this study in a recent post.)  Sullins focuses on the mental health implications of the abortions of wanted pregnancies.

#### "Abortion and America's Moral Consciousness"
That is the title of a recent piece by Maggie Datiles for the Culture of Life Foundation. http://culture-of-life.org//content/view/683/1/ In this piece, Datiles discusses "the legal and cultural battle to define pregnancy." A particular focus is on the Obama Administration's effort to include contraception and certain abortion drugs as "preventative care" and thus eligible for insurance coverage.

Richard M.

#### "Abortion as an Instrument of Eugenics"
Here is a link to an excellent piece by Michael Paulsen. The article was just published in the Harvard Law Review Forum. Paulsen discusses trait selection abortion bans, which are increasingly common. He notes that these bans "pose hugely important, stark, and seemingly unavoidable legal and moral challenges to the constitutional regime of Roe."

#### "Abortion cases are heading toward the Supreme Court"
Here is a link to a story in USA Today discussing the abortion cases that are working their way towards the United States Supreme Court. The article notes speculation that the Court might try to avoid the issue after the highly partisan confirmation battle over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.  Many think the Court may narrow Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey rather than overrule those decisions., at least in the near term.

#### "Abortion front and center as new U.S. Supreme Court term nears"
Here is a link to a Reuters story by Lawrence Hurley about the prospect that the US Supreme Court will review an abortion case during its 2019-2020 Term.

#### "Abortion Funding: Save the Hyde Amendment"
Here is a good report by Melanie Israel of the Heritage Foundation discussing the Hyde Amendment. Here is her conclusion:

"For nearly half a century, the Hyde Amendment and similar policies have provided an important guardrail to ensure that taxpayer dollars do not pay for most abortions. It is good policy as a matter of principle and enjoys widespread support from Americans across the political spectrum. Congress should reject attempts to change course, and the pro-life movement should continue its work providing women, children, and families with the tools and resources they need to flourish and thrive."

#### "Abortion is Unconstitutional"
That is the title of this recent essay by John Finnis in the April 2021 issue of First Things. Here is his concluding paragraph in support of constitutional personhood and the unconstitutionality of laws permitting abortion:

"A break in the nearly half-century silence on the Court about all these matters would enhance respect for law, for historical meaning and constitutional commitment, and for the order of things that underpins our common humanity. On the question whether, under the Fourteenth Amendment as it stands, the unborn from their conception onward are persons entitled to the protection of its due process and equal protection clauses, there is only one right answer. That the Court’s adoption and declaration of that answer would meet unimaginable resistance does not render it nonjusticiable. And though the pertinent bio-­philosophical assessments in no way depend upon religion and are even better supported by scientific knowledge than they were in the era of Lincoln and Reconstruction, the pertinent historical-juridical assessments are indeed fully justiciable in kind. Giving judgment in line with them would ratify the legislative judgment made by the great majority of the legislatures that adopted the Fourteenth Amendment: that prohibiting the killing of the unborn is a matter of simple justice to the most vulnerable among us."

#### "Abortion Proponents Admit Defeat at Rio Conference"
That's the title of a welcome report from Timothy Hermann on C-FAM's website. http://www.c-fam.org/fridayfax/volume-15/abortion-proponents-admit-defeat-at-rio-conference.html

According to the story: "In an astounding show of solidarity, a diverse group of countries rallied together with the Holy See to successfully remove any mention of reproductive rights or population control from the final outcome document produced during the last round of UN negotiations at the Rio +20 conference this week."

Richard M.

#### "Across Country, Lawmakers Push Abortion Curbs"
That's the headline of a New York Times article from Jan. 21, 2011.  The November elections brought pro-life gains in many states and this has improved the climate for pro-life legislation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/us/politics/22abortion.html?_r=1

Richard M.

#### "Advancing a Culture of Life: Pro-Life Argument in the Coming Generation"
The Thomistic Institute NYC will be hosting a conference in April called "Advancing a Culture of Life: Pro-Life Argument in the Coming Generation"

Catholic Center, New York University

April 5-6, 2013

This conference is free and open to the public.

Tentative Schedule:

Friday April 5:

1:00 pm: David Novak (University of Toronto)
Respondent: Rusty Reno (First Things)

2:30 pm: Angela McKay Knobel (The Catholic University of America)
Respondent: Fr. Thomas Joseph White, OP (Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception)

4:00 pm: Carter Snead (Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame)
Respondent: Yuval Levin (Ethics and Public Policy Center)

Discussion

5:30 pm: Mass at the Catholic Center
Celebrant: Fr. Allan White, OP

Saturday April 6th:

10:00 am: Paige Hochschild (Mount St. Mary’s University)
Respondent: Anna Halpine (World Youth Alliance)

11:30 am: Francis Beckwith (Baylor University)
Respondent: Ryan Anderson (Heritage Foundation)

1:30 pm: Mary Eberstadt (Hoover Institution)
Respondent: Ashley Samelson McGuire (AltCatholicah)

Discussion

This symposium is co-sponsored by:
The Thomistic Institute, Washington, DC
Center For Ethics and Culture, Notre Dame University
First Things, The Institute for Religion and Public Life, New York, NY

HT Frank Beckwith

#### "Affirming Ethical Options for the Terminally Ill"
Here is a link to a discussion at the Heritage Foundation addressing ethical options for providing care for the terminally ill. The participants were Ryan Anderson, Farr Curlin, Kevin Donovan, and Robert Moffitt. Here are some of the key points:

 	Eliminating suffering by eliminating those who suffer is not a new temptation. That is why doctors have committed themselves for centuries to the Hippocratic Oath.

2. The emerging debate over physician-assisted suicide and end-of-life care in state legislatures around the country is a watershed moment.

3. The normalization of medical killing poses a threat to the poor, the elderly, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable members of society.
4. Public policy can encourage ethical alternatives to physician-assisted suicide.

#### "Alfie Evans and Our Moral Crossroads"
Here is a link to a good piece by Charles Camosy on the Alfie Evans case. Here is Camosy's conclusion---"Enough with the deference to the medical and legal establishment and its judgements about which lives are worth living. Now is a time for choosing. The most vulnerable require our clear and uncompromising support."

#### "All Dutch doctors must be complicit in euthanasia killing"
That quote is from the title of a recent blog post by Wesley Smith.  http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/09/08/medical-conscience-all-dutch-doctors-must-be-complicit-in-euthanasia-killing/ 

Smith is commenting on a new position paper from the Dutch Medical Association that says that doctors must participate in euthanasia or at least refer to a doctor who is so willing. We have seen this in other areas as well. For example, abortion was first promoted as a private choice. But then we saw demands that everyone ought to be compelled to pay for abortion with their tax dollars. The "choice" movement apparently has its limits.

Richard M.

#### "Anti-abortion bills abound; their fate in court is unknown"
Here is  story from the Associated Press about the many pro-life laws that have recently been passed by state legislatures. The article also discusses how the courts might respond to suits challenging the constitutionality of these laws.

#### "Are Pro-Life Laws based on Sound Science? Yes. Here's How"
Here is a very good article by Dr. Michael New in which he rebuts a recent Guttmacher Institute analysis claiming that many pro-life laws have no scientific basis.

Here is New's evaluation: "The Guttmacher analysis evaluates ten major types of pro-life laws and details the ways in which they supposedly conflict with established science. The restrictions are grouped into three broad topic areas: 1) restrictions targeting abortion providers, 2) counseling and waiting-period requirements, and 3) restrictions using fetal pain as a pretext. Unsurprisingly, the Guttmacher analysis is very selective in terms of the scientific research it cites. A broader view of the same research topics clearly shows that many pro-life laws in each of these three categories are consistent with high-quality, established, peer-reviewed science."

#### "Arkansas Bans Most Abortions in Bid to Challenge Roe v. Wade"
Here is link to a story in the National Catholic Register describing developments in Arkansas. According to the article: "Governor Asa Hutchinson on March 9 signed Senate Bill 6, also known as the Arkansas Unborn Child Protection Act, which bans abortions except when medically necessary to save the life of the mother. "

#### "Arkansas Case Shows Path Forward for Banning Down Syndrome Abortions"
Here is link to a good article by Michael Cook discussing a recent Eighth Circuit case, which I noted a few days ago. Cook highlights the concurring opinion by Judge Erickson who highlighted the link between abortion and modern-day eugenics. That link has been made forcefully by Justice Clarence Thomas.

#### "Artificial Wombs and the Right to Life"
Here is a link to an excellent article in Public Discourse. In the article, Phillip Wozniak and Ashley Fernandes discuss the important ethical issues surrounding the development of artificial wombs. The development of this technology has the potential to reshape the date about abortion rights. As Wozniak and Fernandes note, "if stopping gestation no longer inevitably entails the death of a fetus, then the entire landscape of abortion rights and jurisprudence has fundamentally changed."

#### "Assisted Suicide by Zoom"
Here is a link to a very good article by Wesley Smith discussing the risks of assisted suicide by Zoom. Here are his concluding thoughts:

" 'Protective guidelines' serve mainly to give a wary society a false sense of security about assisted suicide. But once we accept suicide as an acceptable answer to suffering caused by illness or disability, our attitudes toward death become so warped that obtaining suicide for requesting patients quickly becomes the overriding priority. Over time, practices become progressively unregulated—and nobody much cares.

Because many state legislatures are not in session due to the COVID crisis, attempts to legalize assisted suicide in states like New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland are temporarily paused. But these proposals have not gone away. When the political battle resumes, we will again hear many blithe assurances of strong protections. But history demonstrates that 'protections' matter little once it is legal for doctors to help patients kill themselves."

#### "Assisted Suicide in D.C."
Here's a link to a very good commentary by Elyse Smith on a bill that would legalize physician-assisted suicide in DC.

http://www.cultureoflife.org/2016/09/29/assisted-suicide-d-c/

Here's Smith's conclusion:

"Once a society buys into the lie that our dignity and value are expendable at will, determined by a utilitarian ethic, measured in terms of our economic productivity and ability to do what we want—when we want, and how we want—we forfeit the truth that our dignity and value are rooted in our very nature as human beings and not in any external achievement, ability, or material thing. If that lie takes root and if assisted suicide is legalized, we can expect euthanasia, both voluntary and involuntary, to soon follow, just as we have seen in Belgium, where the first child was euthanized just over a week ago.

As we close out Suicide Prevention Month, let’s remember that the lives of all persons are worth protecting, including the lives of those suffering from debilitating and terminal illnesses who, rather than lethal drugs, need effective pain management, psychological counseling and community support. Life, in any stage, is too great a gift to be thrown away."

#### "Assisted Suicide Laws and Their Danger to People with Disabilities"
That is the title of a recent report issued by the US National Council on Disabilities. Michael Cook's recent essay describes the report. Cook also notes that the media have largely overlooked the report. Here is Cook's last paragraph:

"It cannot be repeated too often: a civilization is measured by the quality of its care for the vulnerable and handicapped. This principle is being endangered by autonomy fundamentalists who believe that civilization should be measured by access to assisted suicide and euthanasia. Won’t anyone heed the anguished protests of the disabled?"

#### "Autonomy, Assisted Suicide, and Neil Gorsuch"
Here  is a link to a very good essay by Tim Bradley. The essay is timely as we approach the confirmation hearings for Judge Gorsuch. Bradley discusses Gorsuch's book on Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia and concludes with this assessment: "Gorsuch’s analysis of the (lack of) limits of the broad definition of protected liberty advanced in Casey points to a lesson to be learned repeatedly: the autonomy-based “reasoned judgment” method of deciding constitutional issues involving “substantive due process” is deeply flawed, and it undermines the structure of our government by making the justices of the Supreme Court into legislators-in-chief."

#### "Belgian euthanasia is broken"
Here is a link to a good article by Michael Cook describing a recently published study demonstrating flaws in the Belgian practice of euthanasia. The study, by Kasper Raus, Bert Vanderhaegen, and Sigrid Sterckx, was recently published in the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. Here are some key findings, as summarized by Cook:

"Yet the authors of the JMP article basically argue that Belgian euthanasia is broken ethically, administratively and legally. Its scope is ever-widening and the safeguards are failing. The commission in charge of overseeing doctors’ compliance with the law is ineffective or even complicit in a pro-euthanasia agenda. To document its stunning claims, it draws not on newspaper scandals but on thoroughly researched academic research over the past 20 years and the reports of the control commission itself."

 

#### "Beyond Roe: A Global Roadmap for the Pro-Life Movement"
Here is a link to a very good piece by Stefano Gennarini published by Public Discourse.

Here are his concluding paragraphs---
"We find ourselves at a pivotal moment in the history of the pro-life movement internationally. And it requires President Trump to once again challenge the status quo. His willingness to defy the seemingly unassailable orthodoxies of government bureaucracies is a cause for hope.
While the abortion industry has not been able to create a right to abortion, it has succeeded in securing political and financial support through UN sexual and reproductive health policy and the UN system. If this continues, the abortion industry will expand its political influence, with deadly consequences for children in the womb.
We have reached a tipping point. International policy on abortion must change. And it can change in one of two ways. Either abortion will be taken out of UN policy altogether, or it will be enshrined as an international right.
It is not enough to defend life through reservations and symbolic political gestures. Nor is it enough to go back to the status quo before Obama took over the White House. President Trump must be helped to make his time in office count. The pro-life movement must insist on results and victories until abortion becomes history."
 

#### "Bioethics Hates the Light"
That's the title of a recent blog post by Wesley Smith. http://www.nationalreview.com/human-exceptionalism/347188/bioethics-hates-light

Smith's post is a comment on the continuing controversy about the infamous article (by Guibilini and Minerva)  in the Journal of Medical Ethics defending after-birth abortion--or infanticide. The article caused a firestorm, and is now the subject of a special issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics. http://jme.bmj.com/content/39/5.toc  (The special issue contains a fine piece by John Finnis.) Smith focuses on a paper by Udo Schulenk, which is styled as a defense of academic freedom. As Smith explains, Schulenk's main objection seems to be his concern that Smith (and others) brought the infanticide article to public attention and scrutiny.

Richard M.

#### "Biologists' Consensus on 'When Life Begins'"
Here is a link to a new paper by Steven Andrew Jacobs. The paper defends the view that there is "a large and robust scientific consensus" that a human's life begins at fertilization.

The author doesn't take a position on the normative issues. Jacobs states: "This paper does not argue that the finding ‘a fetus is biologically classified as a human at fertilization’ necessitates the position ‘a fetus ought to be considered a person worthy of legal consideration’. The descriptive view does not dictate normative views on whether a fetus has rights, whether a fetus’ possible rights outweigh a woman’s reproductive rights, or whether a fetus deserves legal protection. However, presenting this view to Americans could facilitate such discussion. Resolving the factual dispute on ‘when life begins’ with biologists’ descriptive view could help parties focus on policy discussions related to the important ethical and legal issues of the U.S. abortion debate."

#### "Death and Budgets"
That is the title of a column by David Brooks in yesterday's New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/opinion/15brooks.html?_r=3&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

Brooks comments on an op-ed piece in last Sunday's New York Times by Dudley Clendinen, who has ALS. Clendinen's piece expressed the author's inclination to commit suicide when his condition worsened. (Teresa already posted about Clendinen's essay. http://uffl.org/blog/?p=1139  )

The column by Brooks has now prompted some powerful comments by Wesley Smith (http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/07/15/david-brookss-bag-of-skin-language-promotes-anti-disability-loathing/ )and Ryan Anderson (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/271998/good-short-life-and-human-dignity-ryan-t-anderson). Smith notes the dehumanizing language employed by Brooks to describe patients with disabilities, and notes how the financial issues will increasingly push a "duty to die." 

Richard M.

#### "Declaring War on Newborns: The disgrace of medical ethics"
That's the title of an excellent article by Andrew Ferguson.http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/declaring-war-newborns_633421.html?page=1 Ferguson critiques the recent article on "After-birth abortion" that has caused such a stir. See https://dev.uffl.org/2012/02/27/article-in-journal-of-medical-ethics-supports-infanticide/

Richard M.

#### "Dishonoring the Dead: Moral and Constitutional Considerations on Fetal Disposition"
Here is a link to essay by Deidre Cooper and Kody Cooper discussing a Texas law requiring the humane disposition of fetal remains. The essay also critiques a recent federal court decision enjoining the Texas law.  Here is the conclusion of the essay:

"[The federal judge] dredges up the tired bad-faith argument, that Texans are just trying to sneakily proscribe abortion behind smoke and mirrors. But the democratic right of Texans to vote on the legality of abortion in their state was taken away long ago. It isn’t about that. It is about whether states will be coerced to affirm abortion as a positive good rather than merely tolerating and mourning it as a tragic necessity."

#### "DOJ sidesteps Supreme Court battle over illegal immigrant teen abortions"
Here is a link to story in the Washington Times about the DOJ decision. A decision by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit requires the government to facilitate abortions for undocumented minors in federal custody. The Department of Justice has decided not to appeal the ruling. It seemed likely that Justice Kavanaugh would not participate in any appeal because he had participated in the case as a judge on the DC Circuit before he was nominated to the US Supreme Court. It seems likely that the DOJ did not want to ask the Supreme Court to hear the case without Kavanaugh's participation.

#### "Dutch Doctors Use 'Deep Sedation' to Hide Assisted Suicides"
Here is a link to a good piece by Dr. Peter Saunders addressing this issue.  http://www.lifenews.com/2012/07/11/dutch-doctors-use-deep-sedation-to-hide-assisted-suicides/ The use of "terminal sedation" to advance the euthanasia movement is worth careful attention. The use of "deep sedation" or "terminal sedation" needs to be distinguished from a legitimate technique--the use of sedation for symptom relief (so-called "palliative sedation").    

There is a careful treatment of this complex topic in Joseph Piccione's entry on "palliative sedation" in volume 3 of the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy. http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Catholic-Social-Thought-Science/dp/0810882663

Richard M.

#### "Echoes of Charlie Gard"
Here is a good article by John Burger discussing several cases in the UK involving disputes between doctors and parents about the medical treatment that ought to be provided to children. In the cases discussed, doctors have decided to discontinue treatment they regard as futile. The parents want to have treatment provided or want to seek treatment from another doctor. The article notes a statement from the Anscombe Bioethics Centre setting forth the ethical principles that should apply to such cases.

#### "Elderly Belgian couple euthanized together"
That's the report on Wesley Smith's blog. See http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/03/31/culture-of-death-elderly-belgian-couple-euthanized-together/ Smith asks: "Why is anyone surprised?  Once we accept killing is an acceptable answer to human suffering, there are no brakes.  Belgium is merely jumping the most enthusiastically off the vertical moral cliff."

Richard M.

#### "Embryology and Science Denial"
Here is a link to a good essay by Patrick Lee and Melissa Moschella.  The essay critics on op-ed by Richard Paulson. Paulson's op-ed critiques the HHS's view that human life begins at conception. Paulson critiqued that view by saying that this position is a religious belief that can't properly be the basis for governmental policy. The Lee and Moschella essay is a devastating rebuttal to Paulson's op-ed. Here is their concluding paragraph:

"In short, Dr. Paulson accuses the HHS of presenting a faith-based affirmation as if it were a scientific position. But it turns out that his denial of the claim that life begins at conception contradicts the standard scientific position, and his arguments against that claim are fallacious (sometimes egregiously so) and inaccurate. Ironically, it is Dr. Paulson, not the HHS, who seems to be basing his views about the beginning of human life on something other than scientific facts."

#### "Eugenics and Other Evils"
Here is a link to a good essay in Public Discourse by Justin Dyer. The essay discusses the history of the eugenics movement and comments on Justice Thomas's recent opinion in Box v. Planned Parenthood arguing that the state has a compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics.

#### "euthanasia is heroin"
Wesley Smith uses this phrase in a post on his blog in which he discusses a proposal by Dutch euthanasia groups to create mobile euthanasia clinics. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/11/17/euthanasia-is-heroin/ 

As Smith describes the idea:"My point was–and is–that once a culture starts mainlining mercy killing, it will always wants more." The pattern is seen repeatedly. What starts with a seemingly modest effort soon expands to more and more cases. The same dynamic can be seen in the state of Washington where efforts are already being made to expand the state's law on assisted suicide beyond the terminally ill. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/11/16/movement-begins-to-expand-wa-assisted-suicide-law/

Richard M.

#### "Expanding Euthanasia during the Pandemic"
Here is a link to a good essay by Brian Bird.

Bird states: "It seems particularly disturbing to imagine legalizing euthanasia in this moment, let alone expanding access to euthanasia if it is already legal. Even so, this is precisely what is underway in Canada."

Here is his conclusion:

"Until recently, almost all of us were disturbed by the thought of assisted suicide: persons ending their lives through the involvement of others, even if this step is taken to bring an end to suffering. Almost all of us are still disturbed when persons commit suicide without assistance. By legalizing and expanding euthanasia, we are less affected by these acts. Over time, we come to approve these acts. Finally, we even celebrate them."

"The project of euthanasia strongly suggests that life has a “best before” date, such that it is legitimate and even right to terminate it once that date arrives. Needless to say, we are not products that go bad. Our dignity does not expire. Our laws increasingly say the opposite, and we are increasingly buying it. Far from progress, this is a tragedy—and one that has only started to unfold."

 

#### "Experts warn Australians against following overseas experience with euthanasia"
Here is a good article from MercatorNet about the dangers of legalizing euthanasia.

#### "Fall" 2014 ProVita Online Newsletter!
Okay, so it is a little late, but the current issue of ProVita is now available for download from the UFL web page. It features a nice essay by Fr. John Conley, SJ on the role of the discipline of philosophy in pro-life academic work.

#### "Federal Court Forces Pregnancy Center to Obey Obamacare Mandate, Pay for Abortions"
Here is a LifeNews.com story about a recent decision from the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Here is a bit from the article: "In a horrible defeat for pro-life organizations, a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court ruled that a secular pregnancy center must be forced to comply with the Obamacare mandate that forces organizations to pay for drugs that cause abortions. "

#### "Five Signs the Pro-Life Cause is Winning"
That's the title of a recent column on Patheos by Trevin Wax. See http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Five-Signs-the-Pro-Life-Cause-Is-Winning-Trevin-Wax-05-16-2011.html

Here's the conclusion:

"The abortion debate will not go away. The fundamental issue at stake is not reproductive freedom but the desire to extend human rights to all -- even the smallest and most vulnerable human beings among us. Those who continue to ignore or deny the humanity of the unborn are increasingly on the defensive because new technologies are opening the window into the womb. What we find there are not tissues to be discarded, but human lives worth protecting."

Richard M.

#### "Four pro-life philosophers make the case against abortion"
Here is a link to a good article by John Conley in America magazine about a panel presentation at the annual conference of the American Philosophical Association. The panel was hosted by Jorge Garcia and featured talks by Celia Wolf-Devine, Anthony McCarthy, and Francis Beckwith.

Here is Conley's concluding paragraph:

"The most compelling argument against abortion remains what it has been for decades: Directly killing innocent human beings is gravely unjust. Abortion is the direct killing of innocent human beings. But political debate rarely proceeds by such crystalline syllogisms. The aim of the A.P.A.’s pro-life symposium was to amplify the argument by showing how our practice of abortion brutally violates the values of inclusion, equality and personhood that contemporary society claims to cherish. In the very month we grimly commemorate Roe v. Wade, such new philosophical directions are welcome winter light."

#### "Four reasons a Democratic administration would mean more abortions"
Here is a link to a very good piece by Richard Doerflinger in America magazine. Here is his concluding paragraph:

"In this essay I am not assessing the overall record or suitability of these candidates. But it is clear that the Trump-Pence administration will seek to reduce abortions and make further progress against Roe v. Wade, while Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris would greatly expand the killing of the unborn, require government to treat abortion as a positive good and pose an existential threat to Catholic and other caring institutions that respect innocent human life. Among Catholics, pledged to defend those with no voice of their own, that should count for something."

#### "Girls Just Want to be Born"
That's the title of a good essay by Marie Smith on sex-selection abortion.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2016/03/16577/?utm_source=The+Witherspoon+Institute&utm_campaign=4e4a2462be-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_15ce6af37b-4e4a2462be-84151629

 

#### "Globally, opposition to euthanasia dwarfs end-of-life movements"
That's the title of a good article by Michael Cook. Cook notes the good news that assisted suicide and euthanasia are still illegal in most of the world, and that the World Medical Association has recently reaffirmed its opposition to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.

#### "Gorsuch's Pro-Life Promise"
Here is an opinion piece by Arina Grossu explaining why pro-lifers should support the confirmation of Judge Gorsuch.

#### "Government seeks to vacate D.C. Circuit abortion ruling, asks for disciplinary action against lawyers"
Here is a link to an interesting post by Amy Howe on the latest developments in the litigation involving an undocumented teen and abortion. The United States is asking the US Supreme Court to vacate the DC Circuit's decision allowing the teen to obtain an abortion. The US is also asking the Supreme Court to consider disciplining the teen's lawyers.  As Howe reports, "the government suggested that the justices 'may wish to issue an order to show cause why disciplinary action should not be taken against' Doe’s attorneys for 'what appear to be material misrepresentations and omissions to the government designed to thwart this Court’s review.' At a minimum, the government continued, 'this Court may wish to seek an explanation from counsel regarding this highly unusual chain of events.'"

#### "Health Care: The Greatest Pro-Life Political Battle of Our Time"
Here is a link to a good essay by Louis Brown, Executive Director of the Christ Medicus Foundation, on the importance of the health care debate.  As Brown explains, "Patient freedom would not survive a single-payer federally controlled health care system. The right to life would not survive a single-payer health care system. The right of religious freedom and faithfully Catholic health care would not survive such a federally controlled single-payer system."

Here is Brown's conclusion: "the greatest pro-life battle of our time is the struggle to define health care and the kind of health care system we should have in the United States. It has never been more urgent to join this great struggle to build a culture of love and justice."

#### "Historic first trial of euthanasia doctors begins in Belgium"
Here is a link to a good essay by Michael Cook on an important development in Belgium. For the first time since euthanasia was legalized in 2002, prosecutors have brought to trial doctors who killed a person under the shelter of the euthanasia law.

In 2010, Tine Nys was killed pursuant to the Belgian law, although her family and prosecutors contend that she was not eligible for euthanasia under the law.

#### "Human Embryos are Human Beings: a Scientific and Philosophical Case"
Here is a link to Patrick Lee's essay discussing the book by Samuel and Maureen Condic. Here is a brief summary from Lee's essay.

In Human Embryos, Human Beings, A Scientific and Philosophical Approach philosopher Samuel Condic and Neurobiologist Maureen Condic advance a careful and detailed case for the proposition that a human being comes to be at fertilization, and refute the main arguments to the contrary. Along the way they clarify the concepts of substance, substantial form, soul, organism, and final and formal causality.

#### "I want abortion abolished, but direct challenges to Roe hurt our cause"
Here is an interesting op-ed by Teresa Collett (former president of University Faculty for Life). Collett discusses legislative proposals to significantly restrict abortion. She states: "While I share the supporters’ desire to protect all unborn children from abortion, these efforts will prove legally ineffective and politically harmful."

#### "In First 100 Days,  Biden Redirects U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Abortion"
Here is a link to an article by Rebecca Oas about the Biden Administration's policies promoting abortion. Oas states: "U.S. President Joe Biden has been in office less than half a year, but he is already on course to be the most pro-abortion president in U.S. history."

#### "India's Missing Girls"
Here is a piece by Rep. Chris Smith on House hearings that dealt with the issue of sex-selection abortion and infanticide in India. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/09/indias-missing-girls/

Richard M.

#### "Insights for the euthanasia debate from unpacking the concept of dignity"
Here is a link to a very good book review by Margaret Somerville. Somerville reviews "Dignity Therapy: Final Words for Final Days" by Harvey Max Chochinov. (Here is a link for more information about the book from the Oxford University Press website.)  Much of the desire for assisted suicide is "existential distress" and not pain. The elderly often feel a lack of meaning. Assisting in their suicides or promoting euthanasia is one response; dignity therapy is another.

Here is a description of the book from the OUP site:

"Maintaining dignity for patients approaching death is a core principle of palliative care. Translating that principle into methods of guiding care at the end of life, however, can be a complicated and daunting task. Dignity therapy, a psychological intervention developed by Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov and his internationally lauded research group, has been designed specifically to address many of the psychological, existential, and spiritual challenges that patients and their families face as they grapple with the reality of life drawing to a close. Tested with patients with advanced illnesses in Canada, the United States, Australia, China, Scotland, England, and Denmark, dignity therapy has been shown to not only benefit patients, but their families as well.

In the first book to lay out the blueprint for this unique and meaningful intervention, Chochinov addresses one of the most important dimensions of being human. Being alive means being vulnerable and mortal; he argues that dignity therapy offers a way to preserve meaning and hope for patients approaching death.

Dignity Therapy: Final Words for Final Days is a beautiful introduction to this pioneering and innovative work. With history and foundations of dignity in care, and step by step guidance for readers interested in implementing the program, this volume illuminates how dignity therapy can change end-of-life experience for those about to die - and for those who will grieve their passing."

Somerville's review includes this quote from Chochinov:

"Although dying is inevitable, dying poorly ought not to be. In the tradition of the modern hospice movement, ‘dignity therapy’ represents yet another way for clinicians to enhance the quality of life for patients nearing death. ‘Dignity therapy’ is by no means a panacea and not everyone will want or need this patient-affirming, meaning-enhancing approach. However, for patients and families so inclined, I have no doubt that you will be impressed and humbled by what ‘dignity therapy’ might help them achieve. Your patients, their surviving loved ones, and perhaps generations to come will forever be grateful.”

#### "It is Never Necessary to Intentionally Kill a Fetal Human Being to Save a Woman's Life"
Here is a link to an essay by five physicians in support of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Here is their penultimate paragraph:

"[The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act] provides a scientifically sound, medically accurate, and respectful approach to ensure that the innocent human being who survives an attempted abortion will be treated with the same human dignity and respect that similarly aged human beings receive in the course of good neonatal medical care. [The Act] ensures that human beings with disabilities are not targeted for intentional killing at the moment of birth."

#### "June Medical v. Russo: Where do we go from here?"
Here is a link to a good analysis of the June Medical case. The essay is by Nikolas Nikas and Dorinda Bordlee from the Bioethics Defense Fund.

#### "Learning from Charlie Gard"
Here is a link to a very good essay by Charles Camosy reflecting on the lessons of the Charlie Gard case. Here is Camosy's assessment--

"Those who held power over Charlie decided that his life was not worth living. They reached this judgment on the basis of his expected mental disability. They denied him treatment, and ordered his ventilator removed, not because of the burden of the treatment, but because of the burden of his life. In a cruel act proposed by doctors, approved by courts, cheered by the press, and blessed by certain high clerics, Charlie Gard was euthanized. It was euthanasia by omission, but it was euthanasia all the same."

Here is Camosy's concluding paragraph--

"Charlie Gard is a child of God who now sees that God face-to-face. That is his eternal legacy. But his temporal legacy may well be forcing Western medicine to face two disturbing trends: a return to “physician knows best,” coupled with a slouch toward euthanasia on the basis of disability."

#### "Life Worthy of Life: Down Syndrome, Equality, and My Son Silas"
Here is a link to a very good essay by Robert McFarland written to mark National Down Syndrome Awareness month. Here's his conclusion:

"Those of us blessed by the love of someone with an extra twenty-first chromosome look forward to October. It provides us with an opportunity to push beyond clinical diagnoses. Our message is simple: individuals with Down Syndrome enrich life. October invites me, along with all other parents of children with Down Syndrome, to proclaim loudly that our children live lives worthy of life."

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2016/10/18123/?utm_source=The+Witherspoon+Institute&utm_campaign=15897aae09-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_15ce6af37b-15897aae09-84151629

#### "Lights and Shadows" on Roe's 48th Anniversary
Here is a good column by Richard Doerflinger reflecting on the "lights and shadows" on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. He ends on this note: "Pro-life Americans should move forward with hope that we can make things better for the weakest and most defenseless among us, and for the soul of America."

#### "Moral Disengagement--Mechanisms Propelling the Euthanasia/PAS Movement"
That's the title of a recent article by Fabian Stahle, a Swedish researcher. The article was noted in a recent post by Alex Schadenberg.

Here is the abstract of Stahle's article:

"The international movement that promotes the legalisation of euthanasia/physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is propelled by highly potent psychological mechanisms to overcome the resistance to its agenda. It is all about cognitive restructuring to justify inhumane actions. These are always in use when normal, well-socialised persons are coerced into accepting and participating in the killing of fellow human beings. Various scientific studies, pioneered by Albert Bandura, have shown that participators are able to endure their deeds by activating these powerful mechanisms of moral disengagement. However, those who make use of such mechanisms pay a high price. These mechanisms have a personality-changing power that dehumanizes the perpetrators. For the society that has allowed itself to be manipulated by such mechanisms for the purpose of systematizing “death on demand”, there are also serious consequences. These consequences can be described in terms of dehumanization and brutalization of that society as a whole."

 

#### "Moral Repugnance, Abortion, and COVID Vaccines: A Dialogue"
Here is a link to an interesting dialogue recently published in First Things. Richard Stith and Melissa Moschella discuss moral issues relating to the COVID vaccines.

#### "Murder not the answer to Alzheimer's"
That's the title of a recent post by Wesley Smith.http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/04/04/murder-not-the-answer-to-alzheimers/

Smith was commenting on a good article by David Brooks who discussed a recent murder-suicide. Charles Snelling, who in December had published a moving article about caring for his wife who had Alzheimer's, murdered his wife and then committed suicide.  It is difficult to comment on such a tragedy. By all accounts, Mr. Snelling was devoted to his wife of 61 years and we don't know all the circumstances that led to these acts.

It is still necessary though to make the basic moral point that murder is not the solution to a serious illness or disability. As Brooks noted, "Our job is not to determine who is worthy of life, but how to make the most of the life we have been given."

Richard M.

#### "New Abortion Bills Are So Tough That Some Conservatives Have Qualms"
That's the title of an article in the New York Times discussing a new wave of pro-life legislative proposals. The article discusses rifts in the pro-life movement about the best way to challenge Roe v. Wade. Some pro-life groups have long advocated an incremental approach. These newer legislative proposals would challenge Roe more directly by banning all or most abortions.

#### "New Report Misleads on Health Risks of Abortion for Women"
Here is a link to an article in National Review by Michael New and Donna Harrison critiquing a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on the safety of abortion. Here is the conclusion:

"Supporters of legal abortion have often argued that abortion procedures pose few health risks to women, but they rarely subject this claim to rigorous empirical scrutiny. Abortion-rights groups have shown almost no interest in improving abortion-reporting requirements to allow for better data on abortion-related injuries and deaths. These groups, along with their allies in the mainstream media, typically ignore the growing body of data from foreign academic journals demonstrating the dangers abortion can pose for women’s health. This National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report is the latest attempt by the abortion industry to downplay the well-documented physical and psychological risks of abortion."

#### "No One Dies Alone"
Here is a very encouraging blog post by Wesley Smith reporting on the "No One Dies Alone" program.http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/08/27/no-one-dies-alone/

The program relies on volunteers to spend time with and to provide support for patients who would otherwise die alone. What a great form of solidarity and of true compassion.

Richard M.

#### "Pew Poll on Abortion Absurdly Inaccurate"
That's the title of a good commentary from the National Right to Life News on the recent Pew poll on abortion.

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/01/pew-poll-on-abortion-absurdly-inaccurate/

Richard M.

#### "Physician-assisted suicide: Dead in some states, routine in others"
Here is a link to a good piece by Richard Doerflinger on the status of assisted suicide in the US. He notes that the momentum in favor of physician assisted suicide has stalled but that in states where physician assisted suicide is legal the practice is "more hidden from public view and even routine."

#### "Preimplantation Diagnosis Makes Gains in Germany"
Here is a link to a recent article in Zenit entitled "For the Handicapped, Some are Quick to Kill; Preimplantation Diagnosis Makes Gains in Germany." http://www.zenit.org/article-31186?l=english

The article discusses recent developments in Germany allowing resort to preimplantation diagnosis. The pratice is prohibited by a 1991 German law protecting embryos but a recent court decision has opened the door to the use of the technique to identify embryos with genetic defects.

Richard M.

#### "President Biden Signs Executive Order to Fund the Global Abortion Industry"
Here is a link to a story by Stefano Gennarini on the new executive order from President Biden. As expected, Biden rescinded the Mexico City Policy,  which prevents US funding of groups that perform or promote abortion.

#### "Pro-choice advocates are caught in a time warp"
That assessment is from Frances Kissling, former head of "Catholics for Choice." This assessment came in a recent opinion piece in the Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/18/AR2011021802434.html

Kissling notes the "increasingly sophisticated arguments" of pro-lifers and also notes that public opinion is shifting toward the pro-life side. She states that "we can no longer pretend the fetus is invisible", and argues for a change in pro-choice strategy. Her shift in approach moves away from an "absolute right to choose." Her compromises are modest, and largely focus on an effort to preserve early abortions. She also argues for an expansion of abortion rights by calling for governmental funding.

But this story seems a further recognition that certain trends are moving in the pro-life direction.

Richard M.

#### "Pro-Life Campaign to Curb Down-Syndrome Abortions Gains Steam"
Here is a link to a good article by Alexandra DeSanctis on the effort to ban Down-Syndrome abortions. The article describes Governor Kristi Noem's efforts to promote protective legislation in South Dakota.

"God created each of us and endowed all of us with the right to life. This is true for everyone, including those with an extra chromosome,” Noem said in a statement rolling out the draft bill. She went on to urge “the South Dakota legislature to pass a law that bans the abortion of a preborn child, just because that child is diagnosed with Down syndrome.”

#### "Pro-life Laws Don't Establish Christianity and Religious Liberty is not a License to Kill"
That is the title of an excellent essay by Mitchell Rocklin and Howard Slugh addressing the arguments of pro-choice advocates who contend that pro-life laws violate the religion clauses of the First Amendment.

#### "Protecting Prenatal Persons: Does the Fourteenth Amendment Prohibit Abortion?"
Here is a link to a good essay (with the title noted above) in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy by Joshua Craddock that considers whether the Fourteenth Amendment protects prenatal persons. Craddock concludes: "Based on the historical evidence, this Note presents an originalist argument that all prenatal life is included within the Fourteenth Amendment's existing guarantees of Due Process and Equal Protection."

#### "Reconsidering fetal pain"
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about a  new paper on fetal pain. Here is a link to the paper, which was recently published in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

Here is the abstract of the paper:

"Fetal pain has long been a contentious issue, in large part because fetal pain is often cited as a reason to restrict access to termination of pregnancy or abortion. We have divergent views regarding the morality of abortion, but have come together to address the evidence for fetal pain. Most reports on the possibility of fetal pain have focused on developmental neuroscience. Reports often suggest that the cortex and intact thalamocortical tracts are necessary for pain experience. Given that the cortex only becomes functional and the tracts only develop after 24 weeks, many reports rule out fetal pain until the final trimester. Here, more recent evidence calling into question the necessity of the cortex for pain and demonstrating functional thalamic connectivity into the subplate is used to argue that the neuroscience cannot definitively rule out fetal pain before 24 weeks. We consider the possibility that the mere experience of pain, without the capacity for self reflection, is morally significant. We believe that fetal pain does not have to be equivalent to a mature adult human experience to matter morally, and so fetal pain might be considered as part of a humane approach to abortion."

#### "Roe Must Go"
Here is a link to a good post by Robby George in First Things. In discussing the litigation choices facing Mississippi's Attorney General in the Dobbs case, George states:

"Lynn Fitch, the attorney general of Mississippi, faces the most consequential litigation decision of the last 50 years: whether to ask the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that created a right to elective abortion, striking down abortion prohibitions that had long been in place in the states.

She should do exactly that. Roe must go. It is morally and, more to the point for the Court, constitutionally indefensible—and has been from the moment it was handed down."

#### "Science is Giving the Pro-Life Movement a Boost"
Here is a link to an interesting article in The Atlantic.

#### "Science, Embryonic Autonomy, and the Question of When Life Begins"
Here is a link to a good essay by Ana Maria Dumitru.  Here is the conclusion: "So let’s stop deflecting. It’s time to own up to the truth. Science has already affirmed what we have long since suspected: we can call them fertilized eggs, zygotes, morulas, blastocysts, products of conception, embryos, or fetuses, but that doesn’t change reality. And that reality is this: they are autonomous humans from the very beginning."

#### "Solidarity vs. solitude: a meditation on euthanasia"
Here is a link to good essay by Michael Cook discussing the Vatican's recent document on assisted suicide and euthanasia. In response to the trend towards legalization and acceptance of assisted suicide and euthanasia, the document (which is entitled Samaritanus Bonus) from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sets forth a clear reaffirmation of the Catholic Church's long-standing opposition to such practices.

#### "Still paying the price for eugenics' evil"
That's the title of a blog post (link below) by Wesley Smith in which Smith discusses the recent New York Times article on the sterilization program in North Carolina and the efforts underway to provide remedies to the thousands of victims. The New York Times article is noteworthy for many reasons. I thought it was interesting that the article notes that the eugenics programs around the country that began in the 1920s and 1930s were "driven by a philosophy of social engineering once so popular that President Woodrow Wilson, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. of the Supreme Court and Margaret Sanger, the founder of the Planned Parenthood, were ardent supporters."   

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/12/11/still-paying-the-price-for-eugenics-evil/

Richard M.

#### "Supreme Court Decision Just Opened the Door for Overturning Roe v. Wade"
That's the title of a LifeNews.com  article discussing the Supreme Court's decision in Franchise Tax Board v. Hyatt (May 13, 2019). In Hyatt, the Court overruled Nevada v. Hall, a Supreme Court decision from 1979. Nevada v. Hall decided that states were not immune from suit in the state courts of other states. In Franchise Tax Board v. Hyatt, the Court overruled Nevada v. Hall. In so doing, the Court (in a 5-4 decision) emphasized that stare decisis is not an inexorable command. Justice Breyer's dissent criticized the majority for being too willing to overturn a decision and he stated that the "decision can only cause one to wonder which cases the Court will overrule next." Breyer cited Casey's endorsement of stare decisis. Many observers have speculated that Breyer's opinion is a warning that the Court will soon overrule Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

#### "Ten (Bad, But Popular) Arguments for Abortion"
Here is a link to good article by David Hershenov in Public Discourse discussing ten bad arguments for abortion. As Hershenov explains, most of the common arguments for abortion would also justify infanticide (or after-birth abortion).

#### "The Abiding Significance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki"
Christopher Tollefsen's essay with that title was posted on The Public Discourse blog earlier today. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/08/1485 Only a small portion of the essay deals with abortion but the essay is well worth reading for its timely reflections on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Richard M.

#### "The Constitution Already Prohibits Abortion"
That is the position of Josh Craddock in a recent essay in Public Discourse. His Public Discourse essay is a summary of the paper he previously published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.

Here is a summary of his argument: "Given the original public meaning of the term “person,” the contemporaneous anti-abortion statutes purposed to protect prenatal life, and the public explanations given by the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment as to its scope of meaning, protections should be extended to prenatal life on originalist grounds. If constitutional protections for the unborn were acknowledged, a state could not refuse to prosecute the intentional killing of the unborn while continuing to prosecute the killings of other classes of persons without violating the Equal Protection Clause."

#### "The Constitutional Right Not to Kill"
That's the title of a new article (link to an abstract below) by Mark Rienzi (Catholic U). Rienzi argues that there is a federal due process right not to be forced to kill. The right arises in a variety of contexts--military operations, capital punishment, assisted suicide, abortion, and self-defense or defense of others. Rienzi doesn't enter into the debate about the propriety of substantive due process (which brought us Roe v. Wade); he accepts the current law and argues that it supports a constitutional right not to kill.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2025281

Richard M.

#### "The Disappearing 'Undue Burden' Standard for Abortion Rights"
That's the title of a recent comment by Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker. See http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/disappearing-undue-burden-standard-abortion-rights

Toobin describes the "undue burden" standard as the Justice O'Connor's "most important triumph during her long and consequential tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court" and laments the prospect of the test's impending demise.  Toobin wrongly states that O'Connor's views roughly mirrored those of most Americans.  As Clarke Forsythe pointed out in his book on Roe v. Wade: "What makes abortion uniquely controversial is that the Justices have sided with a small sect--7 percent of Americans--who support abortion for any reason at any time. And the Justices have for forty years prevented the 60-70 percent of Americans in the middle from deciding differently. The conflict between public opinion and the Supreme Court's nationwide policy is one key reason why Roe is uniquely controversial."

Toobin focuses on the increasing number of state restrictions on abortion and notes, in particular, the Texas law requiring that abortions be performed in ambulatory surgical centers that was recently considered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. See  http://www.texasrighttolife.com/a/1342/Fifth-Circuit-Court-hears-arguments-on-injunction-delaying-Texas-ProLife-law#.VBnu_Njjjcs.

Toobin speculates about how the U.S Supreme Court will treat this law and ends with this question: "O'Connor has been gone from the Supreme Court for nearly a decade. The question, now, is whether her great achievement will soon be gone, too."

We can only hope.

Richard M.

#### "The Future of the Pro-Life Movement Is in Africa"
Here is a link to good essay by Stefano Gennarini. The essay explains that "[a]side from the importance of fighting ideological neocolonialism, building up the pro-life movement in Africa is essential given how politically and economically influential Africa is likely to become over the next century. Obianuju Ekeocha [, a pro-life activist whose good work Gennarini describes,] is doing this admirably and effectively on a shoestring budget."

#### "The Ideological Diversity of the Pro-Life Movement"
Here is a link to a book review by Michael New. New is reviewing a recent book by Daniel Williams entitled "Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement Before Roe v. Wade." A link to the book is below.

 

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2016/04/16736/

http://www.amazon.com/Defenders-Unborn-Pro-Life-Movement-before/dp/0199391645/

#### "The Infanticide Craze"
That's the title of an essay by Ramesh Ponnuru on efforts in states to enact extreme laws protecting nearly unlimited access to abortion. Ponnuru concludes:

"Supporters of the country’s expansive abortion regime now fear that the Supreme Court will retreat from it, either by declaring that the Constitution permits states to protect unborn children in general or by letting them offer more protection. That’s why they are pushing legislation in the states to codify that regime. It is an effort that is forcing supporters of abortion to be a little more candid about what they really want: an extreme regime that denies any meaningful protection to unborn children and threatens the protection for born ones."

#### "The International Implications of Overturning Roe v. Wade"
Here is a link to a good essay by Stefano Gennarini on the implications of the reversal of Roe v. Wade. He concludes that reversing Roe "would also deal a severe--and perhaps even fatal--blow to the campaign for an international right to abortion."

#### "The Lincoln Proposal"
Here is a link to a provocative essay in Public Discourse by Catherine Foster, Chad Pecknold, and Josh Craddock. The essay is entitled "The Lincoln Proposal: Pro-Life Presidents Must Take Ambitious and Bold Action to Protect the Constitutional Rights of Preborn Children." The proposal centers around the president's use of an executive order. The essay states:

"Relying on his constitutionally prescribed oath and his Take Care Clause interpretive authority, the president should fulfill his duty to faithfully execute the guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution by issuing an executive order recognizing preborn persons as constitutional “persons” entitled to due process and equal protection of the laws. Such an executive order would set a precedent that all future pro-life presidents would be expected to follow and build upon."

#### "The Magnificence of Dobbs"
Here is a link to an excellent essay in Public Discourse by Michael Stokes Paulsen on the Dobbs decision

Paulsen states:

"Dobbs may be the most important, magnificent, rightly decided Supreme Court case of all time. It is restorative of constitutional principle. It upholds the values of representative, democratic self-government, and the rule of law, at the same time that it supports the protection of fundamental human rights. It is literally a matter of life and death. It is potentially transformative of American society, for the better. It is a rare act of judicial courage and principle. In every way, Dobbs is a truly great decision."

#### "The Physician-Assisted Suicide Movement is Gaining Ground in Two Major Ways"
That is the title of a recent Public Discourse essay by Gerard T. Mundy. Here is his basic message---

"First, disturbingly, some of the state and district affiliates of the American Medical Association (AMA) are changing their oppositional stances on physician-assisted suicide. Second, proponents of physician-assisted suicide have been successfully inserting euphemisms into both physicians’ language and the popular language regarding assisted suicide terminology, masking the inhumane truth of the practice. The foundation is being laid for widespread legalization of physician-assisted suicide, and advances by the ideological movement behind the push for legalization must be resisted."

#### "The Push to Help Starve Helpless Seniors"
Here is a link to Richard Doerflinger's latest column. The column in entitled "Food for Thought: The Push to Starve Helpless Seniors."

Here is his conclusion: "The U.S. assisted-suicide movement has ridiculed slippery-slope arguments, saying we will never follow the Netherlands in approving assisted suicide for people who only have dementia. It seems we are almost there now."

#### "The Push to Starve Dementia Patients Appears in the New York Times"
Here is a link to a good piece by Wesley Smith. Here is his conclusion:

"It is a sign of our times that acts and omissions that only a few years ago would have epitomized elder abuse, now receives the full-court bioethical press in the Establishment 'paper of record.'  This is precisely how radical proposals enter the policy mainstream. Ugh."

#### "The Rediscovery of the Born-Alive Act"
Here is a link to an essay by Hadley Arkes on the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002, and its relevance to current controversies.

#### "The Religious Question and Abortion"
Here is a link to a good post by Teresa Collett addressing "The Religious Question and Abortion." Collett addresses the line of questioning during the recent oral arguments in the Dobbs case by Justice Sotomayor who suggested that opposition to abortion is necessarily based on religion.

I have addressed this issue in this article.

Sotomayor's suggestion is deeply flawed. It may indicate, though, the hazards of invoking the idea of "religious" conscience to object to laws that require abortion funding, for example. For a treatment of this issue, see this article.

#### "The Supreme Court Should Protect Unborn Children with Down Syndrome"
That's the title of a good essay by Carter Snead and Mary O'Callaghan in Public Discourse. The essay urges the US Supreme Court to hear e case involving the constitutionality of Indiana's ban on abortions for various discriminatory reasons, (race, sex, disability).

Here is the conclusion of the essay---

"Regardless of our nation’s polarized views on the policy and politics of abortion, it is clear that our Constitution does not include a right to abort children merely because of disfavored characteristics. The Seventh Circuit’s erroneous decision gets this basic legal question wrong, and leaves the most vulnerable populations among us, born and unborn, susceptible to the view that we have a “moral duty” to eradicate them, that we are “better off” without them, and that their value can be calculated in dollars and cents.

We have been here before, and history has taught us in the bleakest of terms the chaos and moral depravity that flow from this way of thinking. The stakes associated with the Court’s silence are too high, and it therefore has a duty to correct this error with all haste."

#### "The Trouble with Futile Care Theory"
That's the title of a post by Wesley Smith.  http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/05/12/the-trouble-with-futile-care-theory/ The post and another comment by Smith (to which he links) focuses on the very troubling Rasouli case from Canada. Here's a comment from Smith: "Futile Care Theory is only the first step toward a coming duty to die. Think of Futile Care Theory as ad hoc health care rationing. Once Obamacare is  up and running, centralized boards will create cost-benefit bureaucratic boards  that could systemize Futile Care Theory into mandatory refusals or outright  health care rationing based on patients’ quality of life."

Richard M.

#### "The Troubling Ideals at the Heart of Abortion Rights"
Here is a link to an excellent essay by Erika Bachiochi that was published today in The Atlantic.

#### "The Trump Administration Must Keep Abortion out of Humanitarian Law and Policy"
Here is a good essay in Public Discourse by Stefano Gennarini. He describes continuing efforts to promote a right to abortion in international law and suggests how the Trump Administration ought to respond.

Here is his conclusion:

"The stakes are higher than ever for the pro-life cause internationally. The Trump administration must continue to push the United Nations to respect U.S. sovereign prerogatives not to support abortion in humanitarian responses. It must not give abortion groups a pass to continue to implement their covert strategy to establish an international right to abortion. Some UN bureaucrats still think the US State Department’s pro-life position is merely a political stunt to appease pro-life US voters, and that in the end the administration will turn a blind eye to the bureaucratic stratagems of the abortion industry. They must be proved wrong.
If the Trump administration accepts an agreement that mentions sexual and reproductive health in the humanitarian context, without the caveats it has fought for in other contexts, it will all but waive the possibility of opposing abortion in the future with any credibility. It will also mean that the United States’ positions at the UN are being dictated by EU and Canadian bureaucrats rather than the American people who elected President Trump."

#### "To Live Each Day with Dignity"
This is a quick follow up to my post of June 6, 2011. On June 16, 2011, the US Bishops approved a statement on physician-assisted suicide. Here is the link. http://www.usccb.org/toliveeachday/bishops-statement-physician-assisted-suicide.pdf

The statement provides a useful summary of the problems posed by the campaign to legalize assisted suicide. The Bishops advocate "the way of love and true mercy" (a phrase they borrow from Pope John Paul II), a way "anchored in unconditional respect for ...the human dignity [of patients], beginning with respect for the inherent value of their lives."

Richard M.

#### "Trump Administration issues Final Rules Protecting Conscience Rights in Health Insurance"
Here is a link to a news release from HHS discussing the Final Rules issued by the Trump Administration dealing with conscience rights.  The Final Rules were issued on November 7, 2018. This is the latest development in a long running saga that goes back to the Obama Administration’s regulations that required health plans and insurers to cover all FDA-approved contraceptive methods (including methods that many view as abortifacients) and sterilization procedures. Those with conscientious objections to these requirements have challenged these mandates. These challenges led to the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case. The controversy has continued and the Trump Administration has now issued final rules addressing the issue. One rule provides an exemption to entities that object on the basis of sincerely held religious beliefs. The other rule extends the exemption to nonprofits and small businesses that have non-religious moral objections to covering certain services.  The final rules will take effect in January 2019.

#### "Truth, Euphemism, and Physician-Assisted Suicide"
Here is a link to a good essay by Professor Thomas Cavanaugh. The essay was published in Public Discourse. Cavanaugh's essay explores the great danger of the use of euphemisms in the assisted suicide debate. He concludes with these thoughts: "we should “not be afraid of words that speak the truth.” Rather, we should find “simple, honest, and direct language.” Only after having done so can we adequately debate the ethical, legal, and political wisdom of prohibiting or removing the prohibition of a physician’s prescribing a lethal drug at his patient’s request. Otherwise, we run the risk of drinking arsenic as if it were ale, while burying who knows what suffering under jargon unfit for animals capable of truthful speech."

#### "Unique from Day One: Pro-Life is Pro-Science"
Here is a good essay from Ana Maria Dumitru in Public Discourse reflecting on the theme for this year's March for Life. Here is her conclusion:
"The beauty of this marriage of science and philosophy is that it values the dignity of all human life from its natural beginning to its natural end. We show no partiality to “healthy” or “wanted” humans. We do not give preference to those who charm us with their eloquence or dazzle us with their physical beauty, nor do we discard those who cannot or will not provide material benefits to us.
Today, as we march, we march for the disabled, the elderly, the broken, and the vulnerable among us. We march for all women, and with special compassion for the women who have been violated, manipulated, raped, and abused in heart-wrenching ways. We march for the fathers in our lives and for the fathers who didn’t get a right to choose. We march for the men and women we have lost, and for the change we want to see in our world. We march with hope for the future, with love in our hearts, and with the knowledge that science helps us to understand ourselves as unique human beings from our conception on.
We march for life."

#### "Unwelcome Guests: Disabled People and the New Eugenics"
Here is a link to a recently published essay by my colleague Steve Mikochik who explains why disabled people are so concerned about the legalization of assisted suicide.

#### "Why Colorado Voters Should Reject Ballot Measure to Legalize Assisted Suicide"
Here is a link to a very good article by Tim Bradley on a Colorado ballot measure that would legalize assisted suicide. Bradley states:

"[The Colorado measure and other such proposals] should be strongly opposed for many reasons: they extend false mercy and compassion to those who are vulnerable to seeking assisted suicide, they corrupt the medical profession, and they profoundly change the fabric of the community wherein they are enacted."

http://www.lifenews.com/2016/08/19/why-colorado-voters-should-reject-ballot-measure-to-legalize-assisted-suicide/

 

#### 2010 UFL conference
The annual meeting/conference of University Faculty for Life (UFL) at Catholic University of America on June 4-5, 2010 was a real success. The conference director was Frank Beckwith (Baylor) and the local host was Father Kurt Pritzl, O.P.  UFL acknowledges with gratitude the hospitality of Catholic U and the Columbus School of Law, where the conference sessions were held, and the support of a generous grant from Our Sunday Visitor Institute and a significant contribution from Americans United for Life.

The banquet on Saturday evening featured a talk by Hadley Arkes, who received the Smith Award for Distinguished Contributions to Pro-Life Scholarship. The banquet also featured a tribute to Father Thomas King, S. J. Nora O'Callaghan and Father Joseph Koterski, S. J. remembered the life and inspirational legacy of Father King, the long-time President of UFL who died shortly after the 2009 UFL conference.

Richard M.

#### 2010 UFL conference details
The 20th annual conference of University Faculty for life is  is this weekend at Catholic U. Details are available on the UFL website. Featured speakers include Hadley Arkes, John Keown, Richard Doerflinger, Father James Schall S. J., Msgr. Robert Sokowloski, Erika Bachiochi, and Bill Saunders.

Frank Beckwith and Father Kurt Pritzl O.P. have put to gether an excellent program. We are grateful for the generous support of Our Sunday Visitor.

Richard M.

#### 2011 Conference Schedule available
The conference schedule is now posted on the University Faculty for Life website. See http://uffl.org/2011conference.html The conference, which will be held on June 10-11, 2011 at the University of Notre Dame, is being supported by a very generous grant from Our Sunday Visitor Institute.

Conference speakers include David Solomon, Sam Calhoun, John Breen, Tom Cavanaugh, Michael New, Teresa Collett, Clarke Forsythe, Father Kevin Flannery SJ, Father Thomas Berg, William Murphy, Mark Rienzi, Bill Saunders, Chris Kaczor, Richard Stith, Barbara Freres, Richard Fehring, Gerry Bradley, and John Keown.    

Richard M.

#### 2011 International Summer Course in Women's Studies
The Culture of Life Foundation will conduct the 2011 International Summer Course in Women’s Studies June 14-23 in Cazenovia, New York.  Interested persons may contact Karen Stein (dignityofwomen@gmail.com) or consult the website (http://www.culture-of-life.org).

#### 2012 International Bioethics Conference
Abstracts and symposia proposals are invited for the 11th conference of the International Association of Bioethics: THINKING AHEAD, Bioethics and the Future, and the Future of Bioethics, which will be held from June 26th till June 29th, 2012 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The IAB conferences are an interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of moral views, practices, and insights in methodologies, where established and young bio-ethicists meet.  Abstracts for oral or poster presentation are invited on a variety of topics including end of life in the future and reproductive technologies. Abstracts must be submitted by Dec. 1, 2011.  Instructions for submission of abstracts can be found here.  Symposia proposal should be organized as a 90-minute interactive session.  Symposia proposals are due October 1, 2011.  Instructions for submission of proposals can be found here.

#### 2012 UFL Scholarly Achievement Award & Essay Contest
University Faculty for Life is now accepting submissions from college or university students for its Scholarly Achievement Award. Students may submit work in three categories: Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research. Work submitted in any category must demonstrate the application of a life-affirming perspective on abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, or related issues. Winners in each category will receive $200. 

The student scholars who win in any category may be offered an opportunity to read their work before the annual conference of University Faculty for Life to be held June 1-2, 2012 at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. They may have their work published on UFL’s website. 
 
Rules

1. Students must be enrolled in a college or university at time of submission of work; a copy of an identification card with current college or university sticker will suffice.

2. The student shall affirm in a cover letter that the work submitted is the student’s original work. Please enclose address and contact information in this letter.

3. Essay submissions must be a minimum of six but no more than ten pages double-spaced.

4. Students retain the right of publication.

5. A panel of judges will evaluate submissions based on the quality of research and the demonstration of strong communication and critical thinking skills. Correct grammar and punctuation are required. Research must follow either the APA Manual or the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, latest editions. The judges reserve the right to give a partial or no award if the quality of the submissions merits such action. The decision of the judges is final.

6. Students should submit their work electronically in Word format to DrJeffKoloze@att.net. The cover letter and a hard copy of the paper may be mailed to UFL Scholarly Achievement Award, 10019 Granger Road, Garfield Heights, Ohio 44125-3101.

Entries must be emailed or postmarked on or before 11:59 PM on Saturday, 19 May 2012.
 
All winners will be announced at the annual conference next June at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

University Faculty for Life is an organization of scholars dedicated to the intellectual and scholarly inquiry of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and related issues. We would like to encourage prolife students to strive for scholarly excellence as they examine these issues and by assisting them with building a publications portfolio.  

A list of former winner can be found on the University Faculty for Life website here.

#### 2013 University Faculty for Life Conference Begins Today
If you are in the San Francisco area, please join us at the 2013 UFL "Life and Learning" Conference.  Registration is available from 12 to 5 p.m. at the University of San Francisco Fromm Hall in the Commons.

Here is the conference schedule:
Friday, May 31st, 2013
2:00 – 2:15pm             Conference Opening and Welcome – (Fromm Hall, Xavier)

2:20 – 3:50pm             Panel Session I, (Fromm Hall)

A.     Law and Politics, Roe at 40 – I (Fromm Hall, Berman)

      Moderator: Lynn Wardle (Brigham Young University Law School)

	 “A Critique of ‘Before Roe v. Wade.’”   Sam Calhoun (Washington and Lee School of Law)
	“Re-Reading Roe v. Wade.”   Richard Myers (Ave Maria School of Law)
	“Can Roe v. Wade Be Overturned after 40 years?”  Clarke Forsythe (Americans United for Life)

B.      Economics of Abortion and Fertility (Fromm Hall, Xavier)

      Moderator: Keith Cassidy (University of Guelph)

	 Film screening, Q&A – 1 hour time allotment       Eggsploitation Jennifer Lahl (The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network) 
	“Commercial Markets Created by Abortion”   Vicki Evans (Respect Life Program Coordinator, San Francisco Archdiocesan Office of Public Policy & Social Concerns)

C.      Abortion and the Classroom (Fromm Hall, Maier)

       Moderator: Jim Hanink (Loyola Marymount University)

	 “Teaching Oedipus the King as a Pro-Life Play”  Bernadette Waterman Ward (University of Dallas)
	"Anthology of Right-to-Life Literature: Establishing the Canonical Maturity of a Vibrant Social Force"   Jeff Koloze (Lorain County Community College)
	“Abortion:  Issues and Controversies:  A Freshman Seminar at Furman University” Carolyn J. Watson (Furman University)

4:00 - 5:00pm             Plenary Address I (Fromm Hall, Xavier)

                                    “The Danger of an Undignified Bioethics”     

                                    Wesley Smith (Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism)

5:00 –7:00 pm             Dinner – (Fromm Hall, Maraschi)

7:00 - 8:00pm             Plenary Address II (Fromm Hall, Xavier)

"Starting a Conversation about Devious Strategies in the Pro-life Movement"

Janet Smith (Sacred Heart Major Seminary)

8:30 – 9:30pm             Wine and Cheese Reception – (Fromm Hall, Commons)
Saturday, June 1st, 2013
8:00am                        Mass – Cristo Rey Monastery (corner of Parker and Fulton Streets)

8:15 – 9:00 am            Continental Breakfast (Fromm Hall, Commons)

9:00 – 10:30 am          Panel Session II (Fromm Hall)                       

A.     Law and Politics, Roe at 40 - II (Fromm Hall, Xavier)

Moderator: Sam Calhoun (Washington and Lee School of Law)

	 "The Logic of Roe v. Wade and the Quality of Its Arguments"  Francis Beckwith (Baylor University)
	“The Politics of Roe at 40” Jon Shields (Claremont McKenna College)
	“Testing the Limits: The Constitutionality of Current Legislative Challenges to Roe”  Scott Gaylord (Elon University)

B.      Ethical and Political Theory (Fromm Hall, Berman)

Moderator: Charles Bellinger (Brite Divinity School/Texas Christian University)

	  “Abortion Absolutes” Laura Garcia (Boston College)
	"Reclaiming the Moral High Ground: A Critique of the Modern Liberal Lexicon" John Safranek, M.D. (Independent Scholar)
	“New Natural Law Theory as a Meta-ethical Foundation for Pro-Life Dialogue” Shalina Stilley (Conception Seminary College)

C.      Fertility Issues (Fromm Hall, Maier)

Moderator: Barbara Freres (Cardinal Stritch University)

	 “Artificial Reproductive Technology: The Psychological Implications”  Elizabeth Ring-Cassidy (Our Lady Seat of Wisdom)
	“Is It Our Duty to have Designer Babies? A Critique of the New Eugenics” Richard Weikart (California State University, Stanislaus)
	"Preventing Unintended Pregnancies (the Natural Way) among Women with Hard Cases " Richard Fehring (Marquette University)

10:45am – 12:00pm   Plenary Address III (Fromm Hall, Xavier)

"Stem Cells, Eggs and Embryos: the Controversy Continues"

William B. Hurlbut, M.D (Stanford University Medical Center)

12:00 – 1:00pm           Lunch – (Fromm Hall, Maraschi)

1:15 – 2:45 pm            Panel Session III (Fromm Hall)

 A.     Abortion and Culture – the International Scene I (Fromm Hall, Xavier)

       Moderator: Jeff Koloze (Lorain County Community College)

	 Film screening, Q&A – 1 hour time allotment Petals In The Dust: The Endangered Indian Girls   Nyna Caputi (Bel Air Films)
	“Grappling with The Cosmic ‘Single Issue’”  Gary Hardaway (Bakke Graduate University)

B.      Theory and Practice of Medicine (Fromm Hall, Berman)

Moderator: Richard Fehring (Marquette University)

	 "Answering Objections to Protecting the Conscience Rights of Health Care Workers" Chris Kaczor (Loyola Marymount University)
	“The Physician-to-Patient Relationship and Virtues-Based Ethical Analysis”  J.L.A. Garcia (Boston College)
	Conscience and Contraception in the Federal Courts   Joseph Devaney (University of Wisconsin, Green Bay)

C.      Concerning the Most Vulnerable (Fromm Hall, Maier)

Moderator: Teresa Collett (University of St. Thomas)

	 "What Do We Owe to Embryos?"   Jason Eberl (Indiana University School of Liberal Arts)
	“Rape/Incest Abortion: The Exception that Proves the Rule”   Tyler Graham (Independent Scholar)
	“Persons and Capacity” Mike Stannard (Willow International Community College Center)

3:00 – 4:30 pm            Panel Session IV (Fromm Hall)

 A.     Personal and Political Inconsistencies (Fromm Hall, Maier)

Moderator: Joseph Koterski, SJ (Fordham University)

	 “The Strange Case of Alexis Carrell, Eugenicist” Rev. John Conley, S.J. (Loyola University, Maryland )
	"Where are the Black Catholics in the Pro-life Movement?"  Paula Manchester (St. Charles Borromeo Seminary)
	“Lessons from the Wilderness:  Breaking the Environmentalist/Pro-choice Alliance”  Dane Waterman (Independent Scholar)

B.      How to Make the Point (Fromm Hall, Xavier)

Moderator: Kevin Miller (Franciscan University of Steubenville)

	 “On Life & Its Point”  Jim Hanink (Loyola Marymount University)
	 “The Trojan Cavalry: Using Ideas and Thinkers Respected in the Academic World as Pro-Life Resources” Charles Bellinger (Brite Divinity School / Texas Christian University)
	“Fetus as Child: A Suggestion for Pro-Life Vocabulary”  Karen Chan (St. Patrick’s Seminary and University)

C.      Abortion and Culture – the International Scene II (Fromm Hall, Berman)

Moderator: Richard Stith (Valparaiso University)

	 "The United Nations Agenda for Sexual License" Teresa Collett (University of St. Thomas)
	"Defending the Human Right to Life in Latin America" Bill Saunders (Americans United for Life)
	“A Two-Pronged Attack on Roe v Wade’s Fetal Non-Person Holding(s)."  Philip Rafferty (Independent Scholar)

4:30 – 5:00 pm            Open Microphone – (Fromm Hall, Xavier)

5:15 – 6:15 pm            Catholic Vigil Mass –Cristo Rey Monastery (corner of Parker and Fulton Streets)

6:30 – 8:30pm             Closing Banquet – Lone Mountain 100 (Upper Campus) Handlery Room
                                     Smith Award Recipient  
                                  Raymond Dennehy, Professor of Philosophy, University of San Francisco
 8:30 – 10:30pm           Hospitality Suite – Lone Mountain 140 (adjacent to LM 100)

#### 2014 Supreme Court Abortion Rulings
2014 Supreme Court Abortion Rulings

The Supreme Court of the United States has rendered on June 26th, the second of two abortion-related decisions this month.  Both rulings were victories for the pro-life advocates.

In McCullen v. Coakley, ___ U.S. ___, 135 S.Ct. __ (June 26, 2014) (9-0; 5+3+1) Massachusetts’ law banning standing on a sidewalk within 35 feet of entrance to a reproductive health care facility but exempting employees and agents of the clinic, designed to eliminate clashes between pro-life and pro-abortion advocates violates the First Amendment because it restricts access to public ways traditionally open for speech and is not content neutral but is focused on abortion clinics, exempts clinic agents, is not narrowly tailored, but substantially burdens speech beyond that necessary to further the state’s legitimate interests.

Ten days earlier, in Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus,  ___ U.S. ___, 135 S.Ct. __ (June 16, 2014) (9-0) the Court ruled that the Susan B. Anthony List (SBAL) had standing (judicial competence) to file a suit challenging an Ohio law that criminalizes making a false statement concerning the voting record or a candidate. In this case, Driehaus was an incumbent member of Congress whose votes for Obamacare were criticized by the SBAL as votes for “taxpayer funded abortion.”  Driehaus filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission charging that those criticisms by SBAL were false and violated the Ohio election law. In response SBAL filed a suit in federal court asserting that the federal election law that purportedly criminalized its election claims was unconstitutional.  After he lost his re-election bid, Driehaus dismissed his complaint, and the district court dismissed for lack of standing the SBAL suit challenging the election law, and the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed on similar ripeness grounds. The Supreme Court reversed and held that SBAL had alleged a sufficiently imminent injury for Article III justiciability purposes.  SBAL had shown its intent to act in a way proscribed by the Ohio law, and there was a substantial threat of enforcement of the law against SBAL.

Another Supreme Court decision is expected shortly in the Hobby Lobby case that still is pending. In that case Hobby Lobby and other companies challenge the Obamacare "contraceptive" regulations that require companies to provide insurance coverage for four specific “contraceptives” that can act as abortifacients to cause abortion, in addition to the sixteen pure contraceptives that the companies are willing to provide to employees that merely prevent complete conception.

The constitutional arguments of Hobby Lobby are very strong, especially their first amendment claims.  However, since the Court already has ruled for pro-life parties in two abortion-related cases this term (albeit one of them a purely procedural, and thus peripheral, ruling), for any justices who are very concerned with their image as being in the middle of popular political ideology, a ruling in favor of Hobby Lobbywould mean they ruled three times (out of three cases) in a single year for the pro-life side.  Thus, while constitutional law seems to be solidly on the side of Hobby Lobby, it would not be surprising if the Court ruled against Hobby Lobby in that case and upheld the Obamacare contraceptive-abortifacient mandate. The reason for that prediction is not any reason of constitutional text, precedent, history, or logic, but simply because of judicial politics – the politics of political appearance. For justices concerned with cultivating an image of moderate-middle swing-voting, voting to protect the constitutional rights of the pro-life side in three cases in a row (three-out-of-three in one term) might “appear” to be “too accepting” or “too supportive” of one side (the pro-life side).                                                                                                                                                                                                 -- Lynn D. Wardle, posted 26 June 2014

#### 2014 UFL Conference information
UFL: Life and Learning XXIV
Registration is now open for the 2014 UFL Conference on June 6-7 at Fordham University in the Bronx, NY. Regular reservations are $50.  The student rate is $25. You can register at this site.

Information about the banquet, accomodations, and financial aid can be found when you click on either of the "Registration" or "Student Registration" link at the above site.  I am also providing it below.

This is the 24th annual conference of the University Faculty for Life (UFL). There will be both plenary sessions with invited speakers and concurrent sessions for the delivery of papers accepted on the basis of the submission of abstracts. This is an interdiscipinary conference devoted to academic discussion of the issues of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia.

Banquet
There will be a banquet on Saturday that is included in the conference registration fee.

Accommodations
Lodging is available on the Rose Hill campus. You may reserve a room at the subsidized price of $40.00 per person per night. Accommodations include complimentary breakfast and lunch. Please specify which nights you want to reserve: Friday June 6, 2014, Saturday June 7, 2014, or both.

On Friday evening there will be a light supper provided free of charge to registered participants.

There are also many hotels near the Fordham campus which offer a discounted rate for Fordham guests. Download a list of hotels that offer a discounted "Fordham Rate."

Financial Aid
There is a limited amount of financial aid available to subsidize the price of conference registration and banquet registration. Please contact Fr Joseph Koterski SJ directly at koterski@fordham.edu.

#### 2015 Life and Learning Program
Here is a sneak preview of the 2015 Life and Learning UFL Conference program to be held at St. Thomas Law School in Minneapolis May 29-30. For more information and to register for the Conference, go to the UFL web page here.

Conference Program

25th Annual Conference

1991-2015

Life & Learning XXIV

May 29 - 30, 2015

Hosted by

University of St. Thomas School of Law

Minneapolis, MN

Friday, May 29th

12:00 – 2:00pm          Conference Registration –

12:00 – 5:00pm          Refreshments –

2:00 – 2:15pm              Conference Opening and Welcome –

Teresa Collett, UFL President and Conference Host

2:30 – 4:00pm             Panel Session I 

	A

	"Countering Some Popular Arguments for Euthanasia", Catherine Deavel (University of St. Thomas)
	"Addressing the Issues of Abortion and Euthanasia in the Fundamentals of Nursing: Utilizing the Theory of Moral Distress.", Elizabeth Sutton MSN, RN (Queensborough Community College)”
	“Compassion and Assisted Suicide”, Mary Rose Lemmons (University of St. Thomas)

	B

	“The Telos of the Child”, Deborah Savage, Ph.D.( St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity)
	“Overcoming the Imaginative Barrier to Embryonic Personhood”, Richard Stith (Valparaiso University Law School)
	“The Authentic Identity of Motherhood: Surrogacy and the Nature of Woman”, John Goerke (Student, University of St. Thomas)

4:15-5:15 pm     Plenary Address I – Melissa Moschella

5:30 –7:15 pm              Dinner – McGinley Center Ballroom 

Saturday, May 30th

8:00 – 9:00 am          Mass 

8:15 – 9:15 am             Continental Breakfast 

9:30 – 11:00 am         Panel Session II -

	A

	“Why the Right to Elective Abortion Fails Casey’s Own Interest-Balancing Methodology – and Why It Matters”, Steve Gilles (Quinnipiac University School of Law)
	“A Draft Opinion Overruling Roe v. Wade”, Clarke Forsythe (Americans United for Life)
	“PPACA (Obamacare) and Abortion”, Lynn Wardle (J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University)

	B

	“Suicide, Shakespeare and Sloth”, Bernadette Waterman Ward (University of Dallas)
	“Evangelical and Catholic Vampire Hunters Together”, David Deavel (University of St. Thomas)
	“Abortion Distortion: Correcting Literary Criticism’s Misreading of Early Twentieth- Century Abortion Fiction”, Jeff Koloze (Lorain County Community College) - delivered by David Mall

11:15 – 12:30pm        Lunch  

1:00 – 2:00 pm         Plenary Address II  -  Daniel Gannon

2:15 – 3:15 pm           Panel Session III 

	A

	“Walker - McGill v. Stuart Before the U.S. Supreme Court: Ultrasounds as Ordinary Informed Consent”, Morse Tan (Northern Illinois University College of Law)
	“Significant Restrictions on Abortions at 8 Weeks is Consistent with Legal Principles of Roe”, Michael Degnan (University of St. Thomas)
	“Rape, Acute Stress, and Pregnancy: Was Jack Willke Right?”, Richard Fehring (Marquette University)

	B

	"Abortion and the Argument from Uncertainty", Mathew Lu (University of St. Thomas)
	“Historical Reenactments: A Key Pro-life Argument”, Charles Bellinger (Brite Divinity School)
	“The Problem with Polling Millennials on Abortion”, Tina Whittington (Students for Life of America)

3:30 – 4:30 pm           Panel Session IV 

	A

	“Economies of Co-Operation: An Alternative to Capitalism, Collectivism, and the Culture of Death”,  Eric Manchester (St. Charles Borromeo Seminary)
	"Creating a Culture of Pro-Life Virtue: Persistent Acts of Mercy, Not Random Acts of Kindness", Heidi Giebel (University of St. Thomas)
	Barbara Freres

	B

	“Actions of the UN Secretary General regarding conflict –related rape”, Teresa Collett (University of St. Thomas School of Law)
	“A Critique of Carter v. Canada”, Richard Myers (Ave Maria School of Law)

4:30 - 5:00 pm       Open Microphone – 

5:30  pm                   Catholic Vigil Mass –

6:30 – 8:30pm       Closing Banquet – 

                                    UFL Writing Contest Award Presentation                            

8:30 – 10:30pm    Hospitality Suite-

 

 

 

 

#### 2016 UFL Life and Learning Conference
The University Faculty for Life held its annual Life and Learning Conference at Marquette University in Milwaukee from June 10-11. The focus this year's conference was on end-of-life issues.

The conference featured three plenary sessions, several break-out sessions, and a panel discussion of brain death as a criterion for determining when death occurs.

Plenary speakers included

	Timothy Jessick, DO, Specialist in Hospice and Palliative Care, Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center, Milwaukee.
	Thomas Cavanaugh (University of San Francisco) whose talk was called, “Let Me Count the Ways: Why Physicians Ought Not Kill.”
	Christopher Wolfe (University of Dallas) whose talk was called, “Washington v. Glucksberg and Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Pyrrhic Victory?”

Discussants in the brain death panel included: Christopher Tollefsen (University of South Carolina); Fr. Thomas Berg (St. Joseph’s Seminary); Jason Eberl (Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine); Maureen Condic (University of Utah School of Medicine); Robert Buchanan, M.D. (University of Texas at Austin); Melissa Moschella (The Catholic University of America); Christian Brugger (St. John Vianney Theological Seminary); Josef Seifert (International Academy of Philosophy); and Thomas Cavanaugh (University of San Francisco).

At the evening banquet on Saturday Fr. Joseph Koterski, S.J. of Fordham University received the Rupert and Timothy Smith Award for Distinguished Contributions to Pro-Life Scholarship. Jeff Koloze also announded the winners of the 2016 Scholarly Achievement Award (see separate post for details).

As usual, Saturday evening featured the post-banquet gathering where members stood on a "chair" (actually a stage) and shared highlights of their past year.  There were jokes as well, and other forms of conviviality.
The Presidents' Reception

Dr. James P. Loftus, President of Cardinal Stritch University and Dr. Michael R. Lovell, President of Marquette University, meet with UFL members at a reception on Friday evening.

Speakers

Dr. Timothy Jessick describes and explains the reality of hospice care.

Jason Eberl takes a position in the brain death panel discussion.
Social

Lunch on Saturday allowed participants to discuss the various talks and panels.
Smith Award

President of UFL R. Mary Lemmons presents the Smith Award Fr. Koterski.

#### 21 Questions for Janet Smith
There is an excellent interview with UFL member Janet E. Smith by Sean Salai, S.J. in America Magazine, “Bioethics and the Catholic Church: 21 Questions for Janet E. Smith.”

#### 41% of pregnancies in NYC end in abortion
Here is the story from LifeNews. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/07/shock-41-of-new-york-city-pregnancies-end-in-abortion/ Here is coverage from the National Right to Life Committee. http://www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/index.html

Richard M.

#### 45th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
Today is the 45th anniversary of the Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade. Here is a link to my article entitled “Re-Reading Roe v. Wade,” which was presented at Washington & Lee Law School at a 2013 conference organized by Sam Calhoun.

#### 46th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade is on January 22, 2019
The 46th anniversary of the Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade is early next week.  Here is a link to my article entitled “Re-Reading Roe v. Wade,” which was presented at Washington & Lee Law School at a 2013 conference organized by Sam Calhoun.

Here is a link to an article by Clarke Forsythe entitled "A Draft Opinion Overruling Roe v. Wade."

#### 47th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade on January 22, 2020
The 47th anniversary of the Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade is next week.  Here is a link to my article entitled “Re-Reading Roe v. Wade,” which was presented at Washington & Lee Law School at a 2013 conference organized by Sam Calhoun.

Here is a link to an article by Clarke Forsythe entitled “A Draft Opinion Overruling Roe v. Wade.”

#### 48th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade on January 22, 2021
The 48th anniversary of the Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade is later this week.  Here is a link to my article entitled “Re-Reading Roe v. Wade,” which was presented at Washington & Lee Law School at a 2013 conference organized by Sam Calhoun.

Here is a link to Clarke Forsythe's book on Roe.

#### 49th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade on January 22, 2022
This Saturday is the 49th anniversary of the Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade. Perhaps this will be the last year when Roe (1973)and Casey (1992) protect a nearly unlimited right to abortion.

Here is a link to my article entitled “Re-Reading Roe v. Wade,” which was presented at Washington & Lee Law School at a 2013 conference organized by Sam Calhoun.

Here is a link to Clarke Forsythe’s book on Roe.

 

#### 4th Circuit rules on compelled speech cases involving crisis pregnancy centers
Here is a link to a National Right to Life News story on the 4th Cicuit's recent (July 3, 2013) decision in two 1st Amendment cases involving crisis pregnancy centers. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/07/4th-circuit-returns-dispute-over-attack-on-cpcs-to-u-s-district-court/ Here is a link to a Washington Post story. http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-07-03/local/40346031_1_appeals-court-greater-baltimore-center-judge-robert-king

Both cases involve local ordinances that require that pregnancy centers make certain disclosures. The 4th Circuit sent one of the cases (from Baltimore) back to a lower court for further factual development. In the other case (from Montgomery County), the Court held unconstitutional part of the ordinance (the portion requiring centers to post a recommendation from the county that women who may be pregnant see a doctor) and held constitutional another part of the ordinance (the portion requiring that centers post a notice mentioning that the centers do not have a medical professional on staff). Judge Niemeyer wrote a very strong dissent from the latter ruling. 

Mark Rienzi from Catholic U's Law School has been handling this litigation for years. 

Richard M.

#### 4th Circuit will rehear important crisis pregnancy center/free speech cases
Back in June, I reported on two important decisions from the Fourth Circuit. https://dev.uffl.org/2012/06/28/important-decisions-from-the-4th-circuit-in-crisis-pregnancy-center-cases/   Those cases involved laws that require crisis pregnancy centers to post notices stating that the centers don't have medical professionals on staff and encouraging women to consult with a licensed health care provider. In June, a panel of the Fourth Circuit held that these compelled speech laws violated the First Amendement. In what is not a welcome development, the full Fourth Circuit has now agreed to rehear these cases. The arguments will be in December 2012. This issue seems destined for Supreme Court review.

Richard M.

 

#### 5th Circuit allows Texas to Block Certain Abortions During Pandemic
Here is a link to a Reuters story on the latest developments concerning whether Texas may ban certain abortions during the coronavirus pandemic.

Here is a link to LifeNews story describing the 5th Circuit's (2-1) decision and also summarizing how this issue is playing out in other states around the country.

#### 5th Circuit Invalidates Texas Ban on D & E Abortions over Impassioned Dissent
Here is a link to a recent decision by the 5th Circuit invalidating a Texas law limiting D & E abortions. The vote was 2-1. Judge Willett wrote an impassioned dissent. Texas is likely to continue to defend the law; the most likely next step would be for the state to ask the full 5th Circuit to rehear the case en banc.

Here is quote from Judge Willett's dissent:

"The State of Texas is not seeking to ban this grisly procedure. But Texas does seek to unbrutalize it, requiring that an abortion doctor not dismember a living unborn child. SB8 does not proscribe D&E; it prescribes more humane D&E, one that substitutes merciful deaths for horrific ones. Few would disagree that tearing the limbs off a live fetus until it dies is more barbaric than tearing the limbs off a dead fetus, or injecting the fetus with a lethal substance first. Under SB8, developing human life must be extinguished before it is extracted, thus granting a measure of mercy and dignity to the unborn child’s final moments. As explained below, there is nothing unconstitutional about that.

Respectfully, I dissent."

#### 5th Circuit refuses to rehear Louisiana admitting privileges case
Here is a link to National Right to Life News story discussing the decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit refusing to rehear an earlier decision upholding a Louisiana law requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. The refusal to rehear the case was by a 9-6 vote. The dissenters argued that the earlier decision upholding the law is in "clear conflict" with the US Supreme Court decision in the Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt.

#### 5th Circuit upholds Texas pro-life law
Here is a story from LifeNews about the March 27, 2014 ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upholding Texas HB2, which regulates surgical abortions and abortion-inducing drugs.http://www.lifenews.com/2014/03/27/appeals-court-upholds-texas-pro-life-law-wendy-davis-opposed-that-closed-abortion-clinics/

Courtesy of the Bioethics Defense Fund website, here is a link to the excellent opinion by Judge Edith Jones. http://bdfund.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/AbbottAppellateDecision.pdf

Richard M.

#### 6th Circuit Allows Tennessee's Ban on Down Syndrome Abortions to go into Effect
Here is an AP story on the Sixth Circuit's oder allowing Tennessee's ban on Down syndrome abortions to go into effect. The court is apparently allowing the statute to go into effect pending the Supreme Court's decision in the Dobbs case.

#### 6th Circuit Considers Ohio's ban on Abortions due to Down Syndrome
Ohio law prohibits abortion when the pregnant woman is seeking an abortion due to a fetal diagnosis of Down Syndrome. Ohio's law was enjoined by a federal district court judge in March 2018. The case is now an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The appellate court heard oral arguments on January 30, 2019.  It seems likely that the court will affirm the lower court's ruling.

Indiana has a similar statute that was struck down by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and that case is now pending before the US Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court will likely decide whether to hear the Indiana case in mid or late February.

#### 6th Circuit Refuses to Grant Stay of Ruling Enjoining Tennessee Abortion Law
Here is link to today's Sixth Circuit 2-1 decision refusing to grant a stay of a federal district court ruling enjoining provisions of Tennessee law relating to abortion. The Tennessee  law imposes waiting periods before a woman can obtain an abortion. Such laws have been regularly upheld by the courts. As the dissent by Judge Thapar makes clear, the Sixth Circuit should have granted a stay in this case. Here is a bit from his dissent:

"Since Casey, no federal appellate court has successfully struck down an abortion waiting period. Why? Because the Supreme Court says that waiting periods are constitutional. Planned Parenthood of Se. Pa. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 881–87 (1992) (plurality opinion). Indeed, both the Supreme Court and our court have upheld such laws. But here the majority, like the district court before it, decides to chart its own course."

"In doing so, the majority ignores Supreme Court and Sixth Circuit precedent, as well as the correct legal standard. Given the weighty interests involved in this case, the majority’s failure to issue a stay merits immediate correction either by our court or a higher one. After all, " 'it is not our place to ignore precedent and push our own agenda.'"

Here is Judge Thapar's conclusion:

"Abortion may be controversial. Following Supreme Court precedent shouldn’t be. I dissent."

#### 6th Circuit Upholds Kentucky Abortion Regulations
Here is a link to a post by Jonathan Adler on a recent 6th Circuit decision that vacated a federal district court decision enjoining a Kentucky law regulating abortions. The law required abortion providers to have written transfer agreements with local hospitals. As Adler explains, the 2-1 decision illustrates the continuing importance of the concurring opinion of Chief Justice Roberts in the June Medical case. Roberts's interpretation of the undue burden standard makes it more likely that abortion regulations will be upheld.

#### 6th Circuit upholds Ohio law prohibiting funding of organizations that perform abortions
Here is a short note by Ed Whelan describing today's decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Planned Parenthood v. Hodges. By a vote of 11-6, the court upheld the constitutionality of Ohio's law prohibiting state funding of organizations (such as Planned Parenthood) that perform abortions.

#### 6th Circuit Upholds Tennessee Law Requiring a 48 Hour Waiting Period Before an Abortion
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on a recent decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The court, by a 9-7 vote, upheld the constitutionality of a Tennessee law requiring a 48 hour waiting period before a woman may obtain an abortion.

The Sixth Circuit applied the under burden test the Supreme Court had adopted in Casey. In recent years, courts have disagreed about the meaning of the undue burden test. Importantly, the Sixth Circuit used Chief Justice Roberts's understanding of the undue burden test, which he set forth in his opinion in the June Medical case.

Here is a link to the opinion.

#### 7th Circuit invalidates Wisconsin abortion law
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the Seventh Circuit's decision in Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, Inc. v. Schimel. The court--by a 2-1 vote--invalidated Wisconsin's law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. The US Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a similar case involving a Texas statute.

The Seventh Circuit's opinion is notable for a couple of features. The majority opinion was authored by Judge Richard Posner and his effort here is another example of the "doubtful omniscience of appellate courts." The most noteworthy feature of this case though is the excellent dissenting opinion written by Judge Daniel Manion.

http://www.lifenews.com/2015/11/24/court-strikes-down-wisconsin-pro-life-law-requiring-admitting-privileges-for-abortionists/

#### 9th Circuit enjoins Arizona's law banning abortion after 20 weeks
Here is a link to a LifeNews article on the 9th Circuit's ruling to enjoin an Arizona law banning abortions after 20 weeks based on fetal pain.  http://www.lifenews.com/2012/08/01/appeals-court-stops-arizona-fetal-pain-based-abortion-ban/ On July 30, 2012, Judge Teilborg of the US District Court for the District of Arizona upheld the constitutionality of the Arizona law. Judge Teilborg's ruling included this passage:

"Given the nature of D&Es and induction abortions, as described above, and the finding that the unborn child has developed pain sensors all over its body by 20 weeks gestational age, this Court concludes that the State has shown a legitimate interest in limiting abortions past 20 weeks gestational age. Further, in promulgating H.B. 2036, Arizona expressed concerns for the health of the pregnant woman, finding that the instance of complications is highest after twenty weeks of gestation. This additional legitimate interest further supports H.B. 2036's regulation on abortions after 20 weeks gestational age."

The 9th Circuit's August 1, 2012 ruling enjoins the statute pending an expedited appeal.

Richard M.

#### 9th Circuit upholds California law that forces pro-life resource centers to promote abortion
On October 14, 2016 the 9th Circuit upheld a California law that forces pro-life resource centers to promote abortion.

Here's a report from Lifesitenews, https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/court-rules-california-pregnancy-centers-must-promote-abortion

Here's a quote from Matthew Bowman from Alliance Defending Freedom, who argued the case for the pro-life centers:

“It’s bad enough if the government tells you what you can’t say, but a law that tells you what you must say—under threat of severe punishment—is even more unjust and dangerous. In this case, political allies of abortionists are seeking to punish pro-life pregnancy centers, which offer real hope and help to women. Forcing these centers to promote abortion and recite the government’s preferred views is a clear violation of their constitutionally protected First Amendment freedoms. That’s why other courts around the country have halted these kinds of measures and why we will be discussing the possibility of appeal with our clients.”

This issue is likely headed to the US Supreme Court.

#### A Century of Eugenics
Paul A. Lombardo, the author of an important book on Buck v. Bell, see  http://www.amazon.com/Three-Generations-No-Imbeciles-Eugenics/dp/0801898242/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291911217&sr=1-1 , has a new book forthcoming entitled "A Century of Eugenics in America: From the Indiana Experiment to the Human Genome Era." http://www.amazon.com/Century-Eugenics-America-Experiment-Humanities/dp/0253222699/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291911217&sr=1-2 

The new book, an edited collection of mainly historical essays, is scheduled for release in early 2011 by Indiana University Press.

Richard M.

#### A Critique of Whole Woman's Health by Steve Gilles
Here is a link to an excellent analysis of the Whole Woman's Health case by Steve Gilles.

casetext.com/posts/justice-kennedys-disastrous-defection-and-its-likely-limits

 

 

 

 

#### A link between abortion laws and maternal mortality?
A study by Elard Koch, et. al. maternal death rate in Chile over the past few decades shows that the downward trend in maternal mortality rate was not slowed by the prohibition of abortion in 1989, contrary to assertions that maternal mortality rates will increase where abortion is made illegal.  The study, called "Women's Education Level, Maternal Health Facilities, Abortion Legislation and Maternal Deaths: A Natural Experiment in Chile from 1957 to 2007,"  is available on the PLOS One website, an open access journal. According to an article on LifeNews.com, the study has been criticized on methodological grounds by the Guttmacher Institute. The authors have replied to the Guttmacher criticism.

It should be noted that the study does not assert that the change in abortions laws decreased  maternal morality rate. It only asserts that the change in law did not slow down an already occurring annual reduction in maternal morality.

#### A new book on the relationship between slavery and abortion
Justin Buckley Dyer's book, Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning was recently published by Cambridge University Press. Dyer is Assistant Professor in the Political Science department at the University of Missouri.

Here's the blurb from the web page.
For the past forty years, prominent pro-life activists, judges, and politicians have invoked the history and legacy of American slavery to elucidate aspects of contemporary abortion politics. As is often the case, many of these popular analogies have been imprecise, underdeveloped, and historically simplistic. In Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning, Justin Buckley Dyer provides the first book-length scholarly treatment of the parallels between slavery and abortion in American constitutional development. In this fascinating and wide-ranging study, Dyer demonstrates that slavery and abortion really are historically, philosophically, and legally intertwined in America. The nexus, however, is subtler and more nuanced than is often suggested, and the parallels involve deep principles of constitutionalism.
Frank Beckwith also has an endorsement.

HT Jeff Koloze

#### a pro-life foundational argument well explained (with links to more)
Paul Stark has brilliantly woven in a new analogy (pizza making) to make clear the fundamental distinction between the construction of things and the development of life. (The German Constitutional Court in 1975 and 1993 supported this distinction. That support can be found via one of the articles linked in Stark's piece.)

https://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/2021/05/unborn-children-arent-constructed-they-develop/#.YKRQemGGKNc.gmail

#### A response to the NY Times article "What Happens to Women Who Are Denied Abortions?”
Priscilla K. Coleman, Director of the World Expert Consortium for Abortion Research and Education (WECARE) responds to the June 12 NY Times article by Josha Lang called  "What Happens to Women Who are Denied Abortions." Her article, called "What Really Happens to Women Who are Not Denied Abortions? Best Not to Ask NY Times Journalist Joshua Lang," points out the serious flaws in Lang's analysis of the research. She is especially critical of Lang's reliance on the work of Diana Greene Foster, a demographer and an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco. Foster's study, which has several serious methodological flaws, reinforces the idea that turning women away from abortion has negative affect on them.

#### A response to the prevalent campus hook-up culture
Here is an interesting development at Catholic University of America, noted in the Washington Times recently. This Fall, CUA will institute single-sex dorms in an attempt to foster a more wholesome environment for meaningful relations between the sexes: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/17/single-sex-dorms-right-for-catholic-university/#.Tfz7CIq2pBA;email. Certainly, this is far preferable to the current alchohol-drenched milieu which prevails on too many campuses. The current environment inures our youth to promiscuity while diminishing their innate aspiration for life-long commitment, while, of course, all the time relying on abortion as the fail-safe solution to the babies who at times arise from these fleeting unions.

#### A Seamless Garment that Fits
David Paul Deaval writes, "A Seamless Garment that Fits," for Crisis Magazine. In it Deaval talks about the inadequacies of the various pro-abortion arguments that pro-lifers don't care about the born. He also asks what would be the "threads" ina genuine seamless garment.  HT Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas

#### A Thought Provoking Article by Steven Jacobs on Roe v. Wade
Here is link to a very interesting paper by Steven Andrew Jacobs. The paper is entitled: "The Future of Roe v. Wade: Have Recent Developments Robbed Roe of its Original Justification?"

Here is the abstract:

"While many legal scholars and Supreme Court Justices on both sides of the national abortion controversy argue Roe v. Wade was incorrectly decided, I accept the Court’s decision as a provisional holding that was based on the relevant societal, scientific, and legal evidentiary records available to the Court. Since Planned Parenthood v. Casey held that precedent can be overturned when a change in relevant facts robs a ruling of its original justification, the Court should assess any challenge to Roe by assessing whether it is still responsive to present realities.

In 1973, Roe held that fetuses did not have rights and states could only have a compelling interest in protecting fetal life after viability because it could not find evidence of a consensus on when life begins or evidence that fetuses were recognized as legal persons outside of the abortion context. Today, the Court can take notice of a recent international study of biologists that found a scientific consensus on the view that a human’s life begins at fertilization and the nine contexts in which fetuses are recognized under the law, as most states have fetal homicide laws that recognize and punish non-abortive killings of fetuses as homicides or murders of human persons.

Since fetuses are humans in fact and persons under the law, Casey’s stare decisis standard has been satisfied and Roe has been robbed of its original justification; since Justices have argued that all humans are constitutional persons and Roe held that the recognition of fetuses as persons would cause the case for abortion rights to collapse, these developments permit the Court to protect fetuses’ constitutional rights. Whether the Court returns the abortion issue to the states, establishes fetal rights, or expands abortion rights with a new justification, it cannot allow our nation to be governed by an outdated and incorrect understanding of science and the law."

#### A Tribute to Dr. Pellegrino by Bill Saunders
Here is a very fine tribute to Dr. Pellegrino from Bill Saunders. http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/edmund-pellegrino--gone-to-his-reward.html

Richard M.

#### A Voice Purified by Suffering
Canada's Linda Gibbons has spent ten of the past seventeen years in prison for picketing an abortion clinic against a court injunction. Now out for a time, she has given a short talk at a Canadian pro-lfe gathering. I believe that we should listen well to anyone whose full virtue has opened her up to full wisdom. http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/linda-gibbons-the-end-of-abortion-is-armageddon?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=35002ecd28-LifeSiteNews_com_US_Headlines07_04_2011&utm_medium=email

#### AAPLOG position papers
The American Association of Pro Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists has a page of position statements on various issues. The AAPLOG is a 2500 member strong organization of physicians, para-medical personnel, medical students, and organizations and affiliates that seek to promote the cause of life in their work and among their colleagues.

Topics include:

IS ABORTON SAFER THAN CHILDBIRTH?
October 2012 The following comments are in response to an article in the February, 2012 journal “Obstetrics and Gynecology” which declares ab…

AAPLOG Statement On The Necessity For Ultrasound Before Elective Procedures on the Pregnant Woman
For any proposed obstetrical/gynecological procedure on a pregnant woman it is essential to know the location of the pregnancy (intrauterine or extrau…

AAPLOG Statement On The Necessity For Informed Consent Before Elective Procedures on the Pregnant Woman
The acceptable standard of care for any patient undergoing a medical or surgical procedure would include obtaining her informed consent. This would i…

AAPLOG Statement on HHS Aug 1, 2011, "Contraceptive Mandate"
The American Association of ProLife Obstetricians and Gynecologists presents its Position Statement on the US Dept HHS “Contraceptive Mandate” ann…

What is AAPLOG’s Position on Treatment of Ectopic Pregnancy?
July 2010 Ectopic pregnancy refers to any pregnancy that is implanted outside the uterus, most commonly in the fallopian tube. By the time an ectop…

Emergency Contraception
This collection of articles, letters, and news releases will define AAPLOG’s position and actions as the Emergency Contraception issue has evolved.…

Mifeprex
This collection of articles, letters, and news releases will define AAPLOG's positons and actions as the Mifeprex issue has evolved.…

What is AAPLOG’s Position on “Abortion to Save the Life of the Mother?”?
July 2009 Abortion is the purposeful killing of the unborn in the termination of a pregnancy. AAPLOG opposes abortion. When extreme medical emergen…

Mandatory Abortion Training for Residents
In 1994, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) declared a mandate that all Ob-Gyn Residency training programs must provide …

Partial Birth Abortion

Breast Cancer
The association of induced abortion and the subsequent development of breast cancer.…

Oral Contraceptive Controversy
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists is frequently approached by individuals wondering if the Association has a positi…

Miscellaneous Positions
This collection of articles, letters, and news releases will define AAPLOG's positions and actions on other pro-life issues not addressed elsewhere.…

#### ABC v. Ireland
The European Court of Human Rights has decided the Ireland abortion case. The Court held Ireland's law violated one of the claimant's rights by failing to provide a mechanism for her to obtain a legal abortion, which in Ireland is only available under limited circumstances. The decision doesn't seem as bad as some had feared. The decision seems to afford Ireland the ability to prohibit abortion in many circumstances, and so doesn't seem to usher in a Roe v. Wade-like regime of abortion on demand. I haven't, though, had a chance to read the lengthy judgment carefully yet and so I will plan to post a more detailed statement in due course. 

UPDATE: Here are some links with commentary on the decision. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/12/16/no-european-roe-v-wade/

http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2010/12/it-could-have-been-much-worse-the-european-court-of-human-rights-and-irish-law-restricting-abortion.html

http://www.eclj.org/Releases/Read.aspx?GUID=b533673b-73b0-43ab-b7c6-07e091a1e706&s=eur

The decision rejected the argument that there is an international right to abortion and that is the best news. The Court's judgment reflected a much greater willingness to defer to the judgments of the democratic branches, as opposed to the views of judges, than we've seen in decisions in this country (such as Roe and Casey). It was a welcome sign that the Court continually referred to the "unborn" and to the "unborn child."  

As others have noted, there are some negative aspects to the decision. The Court found that Irish law protects a woman's decision to have an abortion when her life is at risk and, as the Court's analysis makes clear, that doesn't mean "the life of the mother" discussed in such classic cases as the hysterectomy situation when the mother has uterine cancer. In the US, the "health" exception prevents a legislature from any significant prohibitions on abortion (as opposed to regulations concerning abortion such as parental notice laws or waiting periods), and so it is possible that the "narrow" exception recognized by the ECHR will be expanded. 

But, overall, the decision, despite its flaws, was about as much as could have been hoped for.  

Richard M.

#### abortion and breast cancer
Here is an interesting piece by Dr. Gerard Nadal on the link between abortion and breast cancer. http://www.lifenews.com/2010/11/02/gn-102/

Richard M.

#### Abortion and Conjoined Twins
A young single mom from Wisconsin has become the subject of international commentary due to her decision to continue her pregnancy after being informed that the twin daughters she is carrying are joined at the heart and share other internal organs.  

Some readers of this blog may recall the controversy that arose in England a few years back when parents of conjoined twin daughters refused to consent to the separation of the twins since the medical procedure was virtually certain to cause the death of the weaker twin.  Healthcare providers petitioned the English courts to override the parents' judgment and allow the operation, and the High Court of England ultimately agreed. For thoughtful reviews of the case and the literature see A Catholic Moral Perspective on the Separation of Conjoined Twins Jodie and Mary: A Survey and Critique,and UFL member Chris Kaczor's The Tragic Case of Jodie and Mary: Questions about Separating Conjoined Twins.

I can not help but hope this case, like the recent NY Times discussion of selective reduction abortions, will occasion greater understanding of the difference between humbly accepting a child's death that can not be saved through moral means and the intentional sacrifice of one innocent life to preserve another.

#### Abortion and Consistency
Over at the Public Discourse blog, UFL member Chris Kaczor responds to Dennis O'Brien's argument that prolifers are not serious unless we seek to impose the same criminal penalties for murder and for the performance of an abortion. In Let's Talk About Abortion: A Reply to Dennis O'Brien Professor Kaczor argues that there are many instances in which we impose different penalties for the same act based on the circumstances surrounding the act or the nature of the victim.  He uses the example of penalties for killing an ordinary citizen and stiffer penalties for killing a national leader like the President. He goes on the argue that the physical intimacy of a woman and her unborn child is not a valid basis for excusing the intentional killing of the child.  The brief essay is worth a read.

#### Abortion and Crime Reduction in Europe
An interesting new article on the impact of abortion on crime rates has been posted on SSRN.  The authors of Crime in Europe and the United States: Dissecting the ‘Reversal of Misfortunes’ describe their paper thus:

Contrary to common perceptions, today both property and violent crimes (with the exception of homicides) are more widespread in Europe than in the United States, while the opposite was true thirty years ago. We label this fact as the ‘reversal of misfortunes’. We investigate what accounts for the reversal by studying the causal impact of demographic changes, incarceration, abortion, unemployment and immigration on crime. For this we use time series data (1970-2008) from seven European countries and the United States. We find that the demographic structure of the population and the incarceration rate are important determinants of crime. Our results suggest that a tougher incarceration policy may be an effective way to contrast crime in Europe. Our analysis does not provide information on how incarceration policy should be made tougher nor does it provide an answer to the question whether such a policy would also be efficient from a cost‐benefit point of view. We leave this to future research.

#### Abortion and death rates in Italy (discussion on LinkedIn).
A colleague on the Italian American Professionals group on LinkedIn posed the following question: “Since the death rate in Italy exceeds the birth rate, Italians are a disappearing race. How do we stop this from happening?”  My response is as follows:

"May I also suggest that you support the pro-life movement in Italy?  As you know, abortion is legal in the United States throughout the nine months of pregnancy for any reason whatsoever.  The disastrous effects of the 1973 abortion decisions are now apparent to virtually all--"virtually all" because most traditional feminist organizations (the backward ones, whose perspectives derive from 1950s activists like Simone de Beauvoir) and political forces like the Democratic Party in the United States and the so-called “major” network media (allies with that same party, as everyone knows) still think abortion is a “good” and not the social and anti-feminist evil that it is.

"Hopefully, Italy will learn from the United States’ example.  True feminists in Italy should do three things: 1. welcome the unborn child, 2. do everything to assist his or her mother, and 3. work for the creation of a culture which supports life.  These are principles that even Communist Italians can support, whether they are atheist, Catholic, or “other.”

"I fear, though, that what some scholars call the “demographic winter” has already fallen across Europe.  It isn’t just the case of the “monofiglio” syndrome (couples wanting to have only one child, and a boy at that—which should itself be a disgrace to any feminist thinker.)  I defer to your expertise, though, in gauging contemporary Italian society.

"Finally, perhaps the National Right to Life Committee in Washington, DC can assist you (nrlc.org)."

UFL colleagues may be interested in posting their own replies, subject to their being admitted to the group.  Please call or email if you have any questions.

#### Abortion and equality
Here is a link to a very good paper by Erika Bachiochi. The tile is "A Putative Right in Search of Constitutional Justification: Understanding Planned Parenthood v. Casey's Equality Rationale and How it Undermines Women's Equality." Here is a  bit from the abstract:

"In this article, I revisit and critique Casey’s controversial decision anew, attending in Part I to the Joint Opinion’s “explication of individual liberty,” and in Part II, to the “reliance interest” analysis of its stare decisis holding. In sum, I argue that the justices’ concerns about women’s equality are the key interpretative lens through which to understand the controversial reaffirmance of Roe, but one which has been inadequately explored and critiqued on the part of those critical of Casey. I aim to fill that void."

 

#### Abortion and Family Solidarity
UFL member, Richard Stith, has posted a new article, Anti-choice: When Having a Choice Diminishes Family Solidarity, on SSRN.  Richard argues that the availability of abortion causes many family members to reject or reduce support for women who continue their pregnancies in difficult circumstances because "it is their choice."  He notes a similar effect when euthanasia or physician assisted suicide is available.  Trained in both philosophy and law, Richard makes a compelling argument that, at least in some cases, having a choice actually reduces support for the choice of a particular woman in a particular case.

#### Abortion and Increased Sex Trade
Chuck Colson reflects on the connection between sex-selective abortions and the increased demand for prostitution in a post here.  He mentions a law review article by two Loyola law students, Kristi Lemoine & John Tanagho, Gender Discrimination Fuels Sex-Selective Abortion: The Impact of the Indian Supreme Court on the Implementation and Enforcement of the PNDT Act, 15 U. Miami Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 203 (2007).  Another student piece discussing the connection between sex-selective abortion and prostitution in India is LESSONS FROM PUNJAB'S "MISSING GIRLS": TOWARD A GLOBAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON "CHOICE" IN ABORTION, 97 Cal. L. Rev. 905 (2009).
 
Two more recent law review articles focus on sex-selective abortion and Chinese sex trade, Gendercide and the Cultural Context of Sex Trafficking in China , 32 Fordham Intl. L.J. 731 (2009)  and David Smolin, THE MISSING GIRLS OF CHINA: POPULATION, POLICY, CULTURE, GENDER, ABORTION, ABANDONMENT, AND ADOPTION IN EAST-ASIAN PERSPECTIVE, 41 Cumb. L. Rev. 1 (2011).   

A summary of various efforts to address human traffiking with links to relevant conferences, etc. is here.

#### Abortion and Maternal Health: The Great Falsehood
One of the great factual frauds that Justice Harry Blackmun and six other Justices propounded in deciding Roe v. Wade is the claim that abortion generally are safer than childbirth.   Justice Blackmun, for the majority, declared:

“Appellants and various amici refer to medical data indicating that abortion in early pregnancy, that is, prior to the end of the first trimester, although not without its risk, is now relatively safe.  Mortality rates for women undergoing early abortions, where the procedure is legal, appear to be as low as or lower than the rates for normal childbirth.  Consequently, any interest of the State in protecting the woman from an inherently hazardous procedure, except when it would be equally dangerous for her to forgo it, has largely disappeared.”

410 U.S. 113, 149-150.

Of course, that claim disregards entirely the effect of abortion upon the other living human being involved directly in the abortion procedure – the embryo, fetus, or unborn child in utero (however labelled) who is brutally, horribly killed.  It dismisses completely the inescapable and deeply disturbing moral consequence of the abortion act – deliberately causing the death of a living, innocent human being.

But putting that “minor” point aside for the purposes of this discussion, the claim about the comparative benefit of abortion over childbirth for maternal health is a common claim that is worth examining very carefully.

The Roe majority justices have not been alone in relying upon the “abortion-is-safer-for-pregnant-women-than-childbirth” claim.  That “safer” claim has been asserted by advocates of abortion-on-demand for decades, and it still is trotted out regularly.

For example, Carole Joffe recently asserted that: “From a public health standpoint, legal abortion has unquestionably benefited women and their families. Thousands of American women who sought abortions used to die before Roe, and now such women don’t.” Carole Joffe, Roe v. Wade and Beyond: Forty Years of Legal Abortion in the United States, Dissent Magazine (Winter 2013), available at http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/roe-v-wade-and-beyond-forty-years-of-legal-abortion-in-the-united-states (seen 150302)

The claim that “thousands of women” in America have been saved from death because abortion has been legalized and made available upon demand through at least the first three or six months of pregnancy is a feeble and misleading exaggeration of the truth.

For example, in 2012 two researchers published in a very reputable medical journal their study linking death certificates with medical records for all Danish women born between 1962 and 1991 who were alive in 1980.  Mortality rates were calculated based upon the first pregnancy outcomes (delivery, miscarriage, abortion, and later-term abortion).  Mortality rates (from one to ten years later) associated with both early abortions (in the first 12 weeks) and late abortions (after 12 weeks) were higher than mortality rates associated with birth.  David C. Reardon and Priscilla K. Coleman, Short and long term mortality rates associated with first pregnancy outcome: Population register based study for Denmark 1980-2004, 18(9) Med. Sci. Monitor PH 71-76 (2012), available at http://www.medscimonit.com/abstract/index/idArt/883338  (seen 150303).

An earlier study based on data from Finland analyzed by Finnish health experts revealed that total deaths of women who had abortions were nearly four times higher than for women who gave birth. M. Gessler, et al, Pregnancy-associated deaths in Finland 1987-1994 – definition problems and benefits of record linkage, 76 Acta Obsetricia et Gynecolgica Scandinavica 651 (1997), cited in Elliot Institute, AfterAbortion.org, available at http://afterabortion.org/2000/abortion-four-times-deadlier-than-childbirth/ (seen 150303).  Likewise, the rate of death by suicide was seven times higher, while the rate of deaths by homicide was over eight times higher.  Id. While the data is not complete or indisputable, and there are some studies that support alternative conclusions, there is good reason to be very concerned about the detrimental effects of abortion upon maternal morbidity and mortality.

Additionally, these maternal health arguments for abortion ignore and avoid considering the consequences of abortion for women’s mental health and psychological well-being.  Surely some people seem to be unfazed by causing the death of another human being, but many people are not.  Many women who have abortions have difficulty reconciling their action with their self-image as a caring, loving human being.  They later struggle with the realization of the moral magnitude of what they have done – especially since abortion providers and supporters try to euthanize their moral concerns with abstract rhetoric about how abortion empowers women.

While all of the relevant scientific questions have not been fully answered yet, there already is substantial evidence that abortion poses significant potential harms and risks for maternal life and health.  It behooves responsible pro-life scholars, students, and professionals, to make that evidence known and to respond – carefully, appropriately  and immediately -- when the dubious claim that abortion is safer than childbirth for maternal mortality and morbidity is made.

-Posted 3 March 2015 by Lynn D. Wardle, Bruce C. Hafen Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University

#### Abortion and Men's Responsibility/Rights
Fox News is carrying an interesting editorial by a pyschiatrist, "Men Should Be Allowed to Veto Abortions."  He argues that current law giving men no say in a woman's decision whether to continue or terminate her pregnancy teaches men that they are not responsible for the lives they create.  The editorial argues the this is a result of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the US Supreme Court opinion striking down a Pennsylvania law requiring spousal notice prior to abortion.

The Pennsylvania law provided, except in cases of medical emergency, that no physician shall perform an abortion on a married woman without receiving a signed statement from the woman that she had notified her spouse that she was about to undergo an abortion. The woman had the option of providing an alternative signed statement certifying that her husband was not the man who impregnated her; that her husband could not be located; that the pregnancy was the result of spousal sexual assault which she has reported; or that the woman believed that notifying her husband would cause him or someone else to inflict bodily injury upon her. A physician who performed an abortion on a married woman without receiving the appropriate signed statement would have his or her license revoked, and would have been liable to the husband for damages.

A majority of the Court found that this notice requirement imposed a substantial obstacle to women obtaining abortions.  "For the great many women who are victims of abuse inflicted by their husbands, or whose children are the victims of such abuse, a spousal notice requirement enables the husband to wield an effective veto over his wife's decision. Whether the prospect of notification itself deters such women from seeking abortions, or whether the husband, through physical force or psychological pressure or economic coercion, prevents his wife from obtaining an abortion until it is too late, the notice requirement will often be tantamount to the veto found unconstitutional in Danforth. The women most affected by this law-those who most reasonably fear the consequences of notifying their husbands that they are pregnant-are in the gravest danger."  The Court refused to accept the argument that such women could avoid the requirment by simply certifying that notice would result in bodily injury. The Court also considered it constitutionally irrelevant that domestic abuse would be applicable in only 1% of the cases.

At the other end of the spectrum, courts have imposed legal duties of paternity on males  who have been the victim of statutory rape and non-consensual sex.  In S.F. v. Alabama ex rel T.M., 695 So. 2d 1186 (Ala. Civ. App. 1996) a thirty-seven-year-old man was found to be liable in paternity, notwithstanding that the court accepted his testimony that he has no memory of having sex with the plaintiff after he had been drinking for several hours, and his brother had put him to bed. 

In San Luis Obispo Co. v. Nathaniel J., 50 Cal. App. 4th 842 (Cal. App. 2d Dist. 1996), a fifteen-year-old boy who had been seduced by a thirty-four-year-old woman was legally liable to support the child resulting from his sexual relations with the mother, notwithstanding that the boy was the adjudicated victim of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.  A similar result was reached in In re Paternity of K.B., 104 P.3d 1132, 1133 (Okla. Civ. App. 2004).

The most surprising case of paternal liability, however, is State of Louisiana v. Frisard, 694 So. 2d 1032 (La. App. 5th Cir. 1997). In this case the father testified (and the court accepted) that he never had vaginal intercourse with the plaintiff.  Instead the woman inseminated herself from sperm that she had retained after she performed sex acts on the defendant.  The court found the man liable for child support.

Taken collectively these cases illustrate what appears to be the general legal principle - a man will be responsible in a paternity action in each case in which a child is brought to term, independent of his consent to engage in the conduct directly responsible for conception of the child.

#### abortion and mental health
Courtesy of the National Right to Life News, here is a story discussing a new journal article on the link between abortion and mental health.

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/09/study-in-prestigious-journal-shows-abortion-harms-women%e2%80%99s-mental-health/#more-4996

Richard M.

#### abortion and mental health
Here is a link to a recent statement from Dr. Priscilla Coleman on abortion and mental health. The statement addresses recent criticisms of her scholarly work on this topic. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/12/the-truth-abortion-prompts-womens-mental-health-problems/

Richard m.

#### Abortion and mental health
Here is a link to an important new study by Dr. Paul Sullins.

Here is a bit from Dr. Sullins:

"Almost all mainstream Western social science and medical associations assure us that 'women who terminate an unwanted pregnancy by abortion experience no more mental health problems than women who deliver such a pregnancy'. These statements subtly understate mental health problems following abortion by glossing over a well-documented but seldom acknowledged fact: a significant minority of abortions--about one in seven in the U.S.--are of pregnancies that the mother reports were *wanted*, not unwanted.  Such abortions most often occur because, while the mother wanted the child, others involved such as her partner or parents did not."

Dr. Sullins's paper is the first study ever done of this class of abortions.

#### abortion and mental health
Here is another insightful piece by Michael New on the latest controversy about the link between abortion and women's health. The Washington Post recently gave attention to a new article that allegedly refuted a study documenting that women who had abortions had an increased risk of various mental health problems. New explains that the study that the Post highlighted has its own problems.  http://www.lifenews.com/2010/12/17/opi-1039/

Richard M.

#### abortion and military facilities
Bill Saunders has a good analysis of this issue. See http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/pubid.1966/pub_detail.asp

Richard M.

#### Abortion and Racism
A recently-published law review article seriously addresses the abortion-as-a-racist-tactic claim. The author is “pro-choice” and her conclusions are standard pro-choice  conclusions.  But to her credit she seriously considers and evaluates (tries to refute) the claim that abortion was associated with or had a dimension that supported population control for racists purposes.  While arguing that “current claims offered by anti-abortion legislators and activists about race and abortion are flawed,” the author admits: “In the years immediately before and after Roe, some abortion-rights organizations did use population-based arguments for abortion or form alliances with population organizations. Some population controllers, moreover, did have ties to the eugenic legal reform movement or work primarily to reduce population among the poor. Activists involved in the abortion debate, however, tended to focus on population growth among white, middle class individuals, stressing the importance of sexual freedom and environmental preservation. Belonging to the population-control movement did not necessarily mean that an activist was racially biased.” Mary Ziegler, Roe’s Race: The Supreme Court, Population Control, and Reproductive Justice, 25 Yale J. L. & Femin. 1, 50 (2013) (emphasis added).

Lynn D. Wardle, BYU Law School (130913)

#### Abortion and Sainthood
Kathryn Jean Lopez has written a moving piece responding to Stephen Prothero’s very odd commentary on Dorothy Day’s abortion and her cause for sainthood.  Prothero's conclusion suggests that his real purpose is not to reflect on the possible cannonization of Dorthy Day but to argue that the sinfulness of abortion is not accepted by all American Catholics.  Fair enough, but where is the news or interesting thought in that observation?

Elizabeth Scalia, over at The Anchoress, comments on the exchange as well focusing more on Prothero's point that the prolife message of post-abortion grief and forgiveness has not penetrated deeply enough into American society.  My favorite reflection on the exchange between Prother0 and Lopez comes from a reader of The Anchoress who simply identifies herself as NY Mom.  She writes:

"I am PRAYING for people to be elevated to sainthood who were post-abortive…who practiced homosexuality…who were drug abusers…..and who all, by the majestic grace and mercy of Almighty God, repented and were reformed to the point of great holiness.

These are exactly the type of role models the Church needs now. A patron saint for those struggling with same-sex attraction? Lord, call them forth! A patron for those dragging the awful burden of a past abortion behind them? Lord, allow it. What better testimony to God’s love, the power of the sacraments, and the infinite beauties of redemption could there be?"

All I can add is AMEN.

#### abortion and sex equality arguments
Here is a new article by Priscilla Smith ("Give Justice Ginsburg What She Wants: Using Sex Equality Arguments to Demand Examination of the Legitimacy of State Interests in Abortion Regulation") advocating that pro-abortion litigants use sex discrimination arguments in challenging laws restricting abortion. Priscilla Smith is a former attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Erika Bachiochi's article (Embodied Equality: Debunking Equal Protection Arguments for Abortion Rights) responds to this approach.  Teresa summarized Erika's argument for this blog here.  

Richard M.

#### abortion and women's health
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about a new book detailing the ill effects of abortion on women's health.

#### abortion and women's mental health
Here is a link to Michael New's analysis of a recent Washington Post story that argued that the claim that abortion has an adverse effect on women's mental health is based on faulty science.  http://www.lifenews.com/2010/11/08/opi-1004/ His article concludes with this evaluation: "the pro-life movement should take heart. The fact that the mainstream media is willing to invest a considerable amount of energy into mainstreaming abortion and abortion providers nicely demonstrates the quiet effectiveness of the pro-life movement in turning public opinion away from abortion."

New has written a number of excellent articles on the impact of state laws that regulate abortion (e.g., parental notice laws). Here is a link to one such article, which was based on a paper from the 2006 University Faculty for Life conference. http://www.uffl.org/vol16/new2.pdf  

Richard M.

#### abortion as the "lesser evil"
Albert Mohler has a very good essay on an op-ed (published in the Times of London on June 30, 2010) by Antonia Senior. See http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/07/01/when-feminism-kills-abortion-as-the-lesser-evil/ Senior acknowledges that abortion is the taking of a human life but argues that killing is necessary for women's rights. The Senior essay is stirring reaction, and Mohler's response is well worth reading.  See also Dave Andrusko's column. http://www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/July10/nv070110.html

#### abortion bans to prevent fetal pain may not be challenged
Here is a LifeNews story that discusses the prospect that abortion rights groups may not challenge laws in Nebraska and other states that ban abortion to prevent fetal pain.  http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/20/pro-abortion-groups-may-not-challenge-fetal-pain-abortion-bans/

Richard M.

#### Abortion Clinic Regulation
As the present battles in Kansas and Virginia show, controversies over abortion clinic regulation seem certain to continue.  According to A. Barton Hinkle [Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 4, 2011], conventional labels like “conservative” and “liberal” are not predictive of where one stands on this issue.  "[M]any so-called conservatives believe in limited government everywhere except the uterus."  And "[s]uddenly, outraged liberals are sounding remarkably like libertarian advocates of laissez-faire capitalism and the industries they defend."  How can one explain "[t]he fact that progressive defenders of abortion rights suddenly sound like Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan"?  One possibility "is that abortion providers differ from every other entity in the universe—that they are uniquely pure of heart and incapable of error, and therefore ought to be left alone to do their good work in peace while beneficent government agencies impose increasingly strict oversight on the troglodytes and imbeciles who run everything else."  "The other," clearly Hinkle’s view, "is that when it comes to the excesses of the modern regulatory state and the danger of giving government in general too much power, the Milton Friedmans and Ronald Reagans of the world might—just might—have a tiny shred of a point."

Hinkle makes a very good point about the limitations of labeling, but he also evades the underlying policy dispute.  I presume that even Hinkle himself believes in some government regulation [airline safety?  prescription drug testing?].  The challenge is to determine when the risks of doing nothing make government intervention desirable.  This is a particularly vexing question with respect to abortion clinics, as the normal policy decision, already tough enough, is complicated by the underlying dispute about abortion itself.  There are good grounds for believing that some pro-choicers, due to a commitment to preserve the abortion choice as an absolute freedom, are opposed to all regulations, no matter how reasonable and benign.  But there is also reason to believe that some pro-lifers primarily view clinic regulation as a vehicle for driving abortion clinics out of business.  They thus support requirements that arguably are not defensible purely in terms of women’s health and safety.                  

#### Abortion doctor charged with 8 counts of murder
This story, which has been generating an enormous amount of media coverage, is almost beyond belief. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/us/20doctor.html

Here is a story from the National Right to Life Committee. http://www.nrlc.org/news_and_views/Jan2011/nv011911.html

Here is commentary from Wesley Smith. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/01/21/philadelphia-abortion-abattoir-consistent-with-peter-singer-values/

Richard M.

#### Abortion Funding and the Right to Resist Bodily Invasion
In an article that can be found on SSRN, Robin West, a prominent feminist law professor, evaluates Eileen McDonagh theory that the state funding of abortion facilitiates a woman's right right to resist the non-consensual invasion, appropriation, and use of her physical body by an unwelcome fetus. West praises McDonagh's theory as making the personhood of the fetus irrelevant and building on the broad consensus that government exists at its most basic level to protect citizens from bodily assault.

McDonagh's and West's arguments are subject to a variety of criticisms including those made against of Judith Jarvis Thompson's violinist piece.

#### Abortion in Egypt
An article in the prochoice Women News Network asserts that many women in Egypt seek abortions to avoid honor killings.  The article can be found at http://womennewsnetwork.net/2011/09/16/egypt-abortions-women-violence/. Information regarding Egyptian abortion law can be found on the UN website at www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/doc/egypts1.doc.

#### Abortion Restrictions and Use of the Pill
New article from Cornell and Colorado State indicates that women living in states with more restrictive abortion laws are more likely to use oral contraceptives to avoid pregnancy.

#### Abortion Rules in Europe
A recent BBC article lists the various rules for abortion in European countries. Malta is the only country that has a complete ban. Many countries allow it "on request," but usually not after 12 weeks. Sweden allows it on request up to 18 weeks. Any country that allows it beyond 18 weeks has certain conditions, including, for instance, Ireland, which only allows it to save the life of the mother. Interestingly, that condition includes possible suicide, "a loophole the government and Catholic Church wanted closed."

#### Abortion, fetal tissue, and rape
The Washington Post today contains a story about the Spokane police serving the local Planned Parenthood with a warrant to obtain fetal tissue from an abortion obtained by a fifteen-year-old.  The DNA sample taken from the tissue will be used to convict or exonerate a man who is accused of statutory rape and who has been identified has the father of the aborted child.  

Use of DNA evidence obtained from fetal tissue is common in cases involving claims of rape. Carr v. State, 911 So.2d 589 (Miss.App.,2005) (fifteen year-old raped by 36-year-old), and People v. White, 211 A.D.2d 982, 621 N.Y.S.2d 728 (N.Y.A.D. 3 Dept.,1995) are two examples of this fact. In Commonwealth v. Sasville, 35 Mass.App.Ct. 15, 22-29, 616 N.E.2d 476 (1993) a rape case was dismissed because the prosecutor authorized destruction of fetal tissue that the Defendant claimed would have exonerated him.

In 2005, Kansas enacted a statute that requires abortion providers to preserve the fetal remains from any abortion performed on a girl under the age of fourteen and submit the tissue to law enforcement.

"Any physician who performs an abortion on a minor who was less than 14 years of age at the time of the abortion procedure shall preserve, in accordance with rules and regulations adopted by the attorney general pursuant to this section, fetal tissue extracted during such abortion. The physician shall submit such tissue to the Kansas bureau of investigation or to a laboratory designated by the director of the Kansas bureau of investigation."

This sort of statute should exist in every state, especially in light of reports that some abortion providers refuse to report cases of statutory rape.

#### Abortion, Paternity and Fathers' Rights
Earlier this year I posted a link to an editorial arguing that fathers should have a right to veto the abortion of their children.  I noted that the US Supreme Court struck down a Pennsylvania law that required husbands be notified of a wife's intent to have an abortion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, notwithstanding that notification could be avoided by a woman telling the abortion provider that the child was not her husband's child, or that she feared violence if her husband was notified.  I expressed the view that while it is possible that the Court would reverse its opinion on notification of husbands, but I saw very little prospect of success for a consent requirement.

SSRN has a new article, Fathers and Abortion, by Ezio Di Nucci (Universität Duisburg-Essen), in which the author addresses paternal rights, but from a distinctly pro-abortion point of view.  Dr. Di Nucci argues that it is wrong for women to continue pregnancies over the objection of the "prospective fathers", even in cases in which the man will bear no financial or legal responsibility for the child. Yet he simultaneously maintains that women should retain "an absolute right to abortion." In other words, if either parent wants the unborn child aborted, that parent's views should prevail.  While he disavows wanting to require women to abort at the demand of the father, he gives almost no explanation of why we should tolerate the "wrongful" conduct of a woman continuing the pregnancy over the father's objection.

It is clear from his article that Dr. Di Nucci is concerned with making a philosophical, not legal, argument. Yet I think his article is weakened considerably by his failure to refer to actual cases involving fact patterns similar to those he is concerned with.   For example, in Evans v. United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights denied a biological mother's request to bring her embryonic children to term over the objection of the father.  This case is particular poignant, because at the time of the lawsuit the woman had no other children and was incapable of conceiving other children due to ovarian cancer. Yet despite these facts, the court granted the man's request to have the embryos destroyed since the couple was no longer together.  The outcome mirrors that of almost all American cases on this subject.  I discuss these cases in my article Whose Life is it Anyway?.

Dr. Di Nucci's position contrasts sharply with the new billboard campaign in California urging men to fulfill the responsibilities that come with conceiving a child. The billboards are intentionally placed in black communities where fatherlessness is epidemic.  Over 72% of African-American children are born to single mothers.  The billboards proclaim "Fatherhood begins in the womb." One of the sponsors of the billboards explains that abortion is promoted as empowering women but, “Men have been empowered by Roe v. Wade to have sex and run. They’ve been forced out of their crucial role by perpetual welfare and today’s brand of liberal feminism.”

The fact that Dr. Di Nucci supports "an absolute right to abortion" but not an equally absolute right to bring the child to term suggests he is more a fan of sexual license than personal autonomy, yet I fear his views are not unique.

#### Abstracts due for Queen's Health and Human Rights Conference
Abstract submission closes Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011 for the Queen’s Health & Human Rights Conference Sept 30-Oct 1, 2011, Kingston ON Canada.  More information here.

#### academics to study impact of abortion on women
Here is a short item by Priscilla Coleman about a new group (WECARE; www.wecareexperts.org) that will study the impact of abortion on women.  http://www.lifenews.com/2012/01/30/academics-launch-group-to-research-how-abortion-affects-women/ Here is her description of the organization:

"WECARE is a 501c3 organization newly established to bring together credentialed scientists with a research program on the physical, psychological, and/or relational effects of abortion to engage in international research collaboration, scientific information dissemination, professional education, and legal consultation.  By adopting a non-religious, non-partisan approach to understanding the implications of abortion, WECARE exists to enhance the quality of information, develop strategies for effectively transmitting research findings, and to break down barriers to evidence-based medicine."

Richard M.

#### Access to Court Documents in Federal Cases
Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an internet site that allows anyone to obtain case information and court pleadings from federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts. To use PACER, you need to register for an account. Anyone can have a PACER account. You do not need to be a lawyer to use PACER. There is no cost to register, but access to web based PACER systems will generate a $.08 per page charge. You are not charged per minute of use. The charge applies whether or not pages are printed, viewed, or downloaded. The cost to access a single document is capped at $2.40, about 30 pages.
 
If you accrue a total of less than $10 worth of charges in any given quarter, fees are waived for that quarter and your balance will be reset to $0 for the next quarter. If you exceed $10 worth of charges, you will be billed on a quarterly basis for your transactions. 

The site can be very useful for scholars who want to see the actual briefs and orders in a particular case.  

For example, if you are interested in the Texas ultrasound case Richard M. posted on, you can go to the PACER site for the federal district court in the Western District of Texas and enter case no. 11-486.  PACER will then give you a choice of cases.  The ultrasound case is "Texas Medical Providers Performing Abortion Services v. Lakey."  After you click on that link, a window will open offering you several documents to review including the Plaintiffs' Petition and the state's answer.

#### ACLU attacks KS law protecting consumers from forced insurance coverage of abortion
The ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri has sued Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger to stop implementation of a new law (KS House Bill 2075) that prohibits insurance coverage for elective abortions, unless coverage is limited to abortions procedures "necessary to save the life of the mother." Individuals who wish to have abortion included in their insurance policy may do so through the purchase of individual riders "for which an additional premium is paid."  The law requires that premiums for such optional riders shall be calculated so to fully cover "the estimated cost of covering elective abortions per enrollee as determined on an average actuarial basis." Optional riders may not be offered by state or federal insurance exchanges however.

The law is an attempt to solve the problem of insurance companies forcing all policy holders, regardless of personal belief or physical condition, to pay for elective abortions.  Refusing to pay for abortions is a matter of conscience for many people, including many who support the legal availability of abortion. Some employers currently exclude such coverage from their policies voluntarily.  (Whether they can continue to do so under the President's healthcare reform is an open question.) The Kansas law simply protects freedom of conscience for those who are insured through policies negotiated by organizations who are indifferent to or support abortion.  People who wish to pay for women's abortions have ample opportunity to contribute to various non-profit organizations established for that purpose.

You can read the Kansas law here. Court documents filed by the ACLU can be found here.

#### ACLU sues to challenge Arizona law prohibiting abortions for race and sex selection
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the ACLU suit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona's ban on abortions for race and sex selection. http://www.lifenews.com/2013/06/03/aclu-sues-to-allow-abortions-based-on-race-whos-the-racist-now/?pr=1

This is an interesting and risky move by the ACLU.  Laws restricting abortion for race and sex selection are popular. Supporters of abortion rights have increasingly argued that abortion is about equality for women. The suit reveals, however, that the the ACLU and proponents of abortion rights are not really interested in equality. These groups are primarily interested in abortion on demand and any restriction on that unfettered choice must be resisted.

Richard M.

#### ACLU's challenge to Kentucky ultrasound law
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about the ACLU's challenge to Kentucky's ultrasound law, which requires women seeking abortions to undergo an ultrasound. Here is a comment from Ingrid Duran (NRLC's Director of State Legislation) that was made when the Kentucky law passed:

"Kentucky took an important step in the right direction in order to protect mothers and their unborn children by enacting the ultrasound law and the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection act. There is nothing unconstitutional about giving mothers all of the information they deserve prior to making such a life-and-death decision.

The ACLU is clearly operating on the side of fear because they’re aware of the positive impacts these laws have for mothers and unborn children."

 

#### Additional pictures from 2015 UFL Conference
 

 

 

#### Administration creates new HHS Division to protect conscience and religious freedom
Here and here are stories from LifeNews and National Right to Life News about the Administration's creation of "The Conscience and Religious Freedom Division" within HHS. The new Division will focus on enforcing existing conscience protections in federal law.

#### Adoption Survey
The American Association of Pro Life OB/GYNs on their Facebook page mentioned a study being conducted by Priscilla K. Coleman, Ph.D. of Bowling Green State University called "Cross-Cultural Retrospective Study of Women's Decision Making and Mental Health Outcomes when placing a Child for Adoption."
If you’ve placed a child for adoption in Australia or the US and are interested in sharing our story to help researchers better understand abortion-decision making, the experience, and post-placement psychological adjustment, then please consider participating in a study directed by Priscilla K. Coleman, Ph.D., Bowling Green State University.

This is one of the most comprehensive studies of the psychology of adoption ever conducted. Participation is easy. You’ll find the on line survey located here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/B3QXPMR

Please keep in mind that the survey is lengthy and will likely take over an hour to complete. If you’re interested, please plan to fill out the survey soon. The information you provide will greatly benefit women n the future. Thank you for helping us!

#### Advancing a Culture of Life symposium
Next weekend (April 5-6) there will be a fantastic symposium in NYC called "Advancing a Culture of Life: pro-life arguments in the coming generation." Among the speakers will be Thomas Joseph White, O.P., Mary Eberstadt, Paige Hochschild, Francis Beckwith, Ryan T. Anderson, Ashley McGuire, Angela Knobel, R.R. Reno, Yuval Levin, Carter Snead, Anna Halpine, David Novak.

More information can be found on the Thomas Institute web page here.

The symposium is sponsored by:

The Thomistic Institute, Washington, DC
Center For Ethics and Culture, Notre Dame University
First Things, The Institute for Religion and Public Life, New York, NY

 

 

#### African American abortion rate disproportionate in Mississippi
According to a CNSNews article, CDC statistics reveal that African American abortions are disproportionately high compared to ratio of African Americans in the state's population. "Although whites outnumber blacks in Mississippi by nearly 2-to-1, 71.67% of the babies aborted in Mississippi are black, while 26.6% are white."

#### African-American conference deadline extended
The National Association of African-American Studies has extended the deadline for submittal of abstracts through November 18, 2010. Please encourage persons interested in attending the conference in Baton Rouge in February 2011 to submit their abstracts by the new deadline. Further information can be found on the organization’s website: http://naaas.org/ .

#### Alabama Supreme Court Justice Urges Supreme Court to Overturn Roe v. Wade
Here is a LifeNews.com report on a decision from the Alabama Supreme Court dealing with the state's unborn victim of violence statute. Such statutes treat unborn children as "persons" and so acts that take the life of unborn children are treated as separate crimes. A person who killed a pregnant women and her unborn child would be guilty of a double murder.

In a concurring opinion, Justice Parker again urged the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Here is a quote from Justice Parker's opinion:

"I concur fully with the Court's rationale that unborn children are persons entitled to the full and equal protection of the law. I write specially to expound upon the principles presented in the main opinion and to note the continued legal anomaly and logical fallacy that is Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973); I urge the United States Supreme Court to overrule this increasingly isolated exception to the rights of unborn children."

For more on the opinion, see this LifeNews.com story.

#### Alabama Supreme Court on Roe v. Wade
Here is a link to an article on a recent decision by the Alabama Supreme Court in which Justice Parker critiques Roe's viability standard. http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/02/alabama_supreme_court_justice.html The Alabama case did not involve abortion. The case dealt with how to interpret Alabama's wrongful death statute. Justice Parker's decision notes the anomaly between how the unborn is treated in different areas of the law. In commenting on the decision, Profesor David Smolin stated: "It is philosophically, morally and ethically problematic to consider a human as a person for some things and not for others," Smolin said. "It makes us uncomfortable with elective abortion. The more places where the law puts them as a human person, the more it makes us think about what we are doing on abortion."

Here's a link to the opinion. http://www.liberty.edu/media/9980/attachments/opinion_sct_al_roe_v_wade_viability_standard_021712.pdf

Richard M.

#### Alabama Supreme Court ruling protects the unborn
On December 30, 2016, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the phrase "minor child" in the state's Wrongful Death Act includes a pre-viable fetus. Justice Parker's special concurrence noted that Alabama law generally protects the unborn from the moment of conception, and that "[t]he fact that life begins at conception is beyond refutation." Justice Parker noted, as he had in prior opinions, that the viability standard set forth in Roe v. Wade is incoherent, especially as applied to wrongful death law.

Here  is a link to an article of mine entitled "Re-reading Roe v. Wade." In that article, I explained that Roe v. Wade, despite its undeniable importance, is an outlier in many respects. Decisions such as this help to affirm the humanity of the unborn and serve to undermine Roe v. Wade.

Here and here are links to stories on the Alabama decision from LifeNews and LifeSiteNews.

#### Alabama Supreme Court ruling protects the unborn
I wanted to call attention to a decision by the Alabama Supreme Court in Ex parte Hicks. Here is link to the LifeNews story on the case.   http://www.lifenews.com/2014/04/18/alabama-court-again-rules-unborn-children-deserve-legal-protection/

The case involved an interpretation of Alabama's chemical endangerment statute, which prohibits exposing a "child" to a controlled substance. In the Hicks case, the Court interpreted "child" to include "all children, born and unborn, " and therefore upheld the conviction of Sarah Hicks who exposed her unborn child to cocaine. Her child tested positive for the presence of cocaine at the time of his birth.

The concurring opinion by Justice Parker contained a critique of the United States Supreme Court decisions dealing with abortion. Justice Parker's opinion included the following passage: "In contrast to the reasoning of Roe and Casey, Alabama's reliance upon objective principles has led this Court to consistently recognize the inalienable right to life inherently possessed by every human being and to dispel the shroud of doubt cast by the United States Supreme Court's violation of the law of noncontradiction. This sound foundation allows Alabama to provide refuge to liberty -- the purported objective of the plurality opinion in Casey. Liberty will continue to find no refuge in abortion jurisprudence until courts refuse to violate the law of noncontradiction and, like Alabama, recognize an unborn child's inalienable right to life at every point in time and in every respect. "

Here is the conclusion of Justice Parker's opinion: "To dispel the shroud of doubt shadowing our nation's abortion jurisprudence, courts must have the courage to allow the law of noncontradiction to dismantle the ipse dixit reasoning of Roe, Casey, and Stenberg and recognize a child's inalienable right to life at all stages of development. Until then, our grief is not for the Constitution alone; we also grieve for the millions of children who have not been afforded equal value, love, and protection since Roe."

Richard M.

#### Alabama Supreme Court ruling protects unborn children
Here is a link to a recent (January 11, 2013) ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court holding that the state's chemical endangerment of a child law applies to protect unborn children. http://alabamaappellatewatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Ex-parte-Hope-Elisabeth-Ankrom.pdf  The ruling came in two cases involving two women whose use of illegal drugs while pregnant caused harm to their unborn children.

An opinion by Justice Parker stated:  "The decision of this Court today is in keeping with the widespread legal recognition that unborn children are persons with rights that should be protected by law. Today, the only major area in which unborn children are denied legal protection is abortion, and that denial is only because of the dictates of Roe."

Richard M.

#### Alabama to take dismemberment abortion case to US Supreme Court
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News discussing the Alabama Attorney General's decision to seek Supreme Court review of a federal court of appeals court decision striking down Alabama's ban on dismemberment abortions. The case, Miller v. West Alabama Women's Center, was decided by the Eleventh Circuit in August 2018. A concurring opinion by Judge Dubina noted his view that Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey have no basis in the Constitution.

As discussed in this article, a case involving Texas's ban on dismemberment abortions was argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on November 5, 2018.

 

#### Alaska voters approve parental notice law
On Tuesday, August 24, voters in Alaska approved a law requring parental notice 48 hours before a teenager under age 18 has an abortion. Here is report from the National Right to Life Committee, http://www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Aug10/nv082510.html , and one from LifeNews.com, http://www.lifenews.com/state5372.html

Richard M.

#### Alexandra DeSanctis on the new New Jersey Law on Abortion
Here is a good article by Alexandra DeSanctis on the new New Jersey law protecting access to abortion. The article makes it clear that if the Supreme Court overrules Roe and Casey the battle over abortion will switch to the states. And states such as New Jersey have moved to aggressively protect access to abortion. These protections will almost certainly survive the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs.

Here is her conclusion: "With this expansive guarantee of unlimited abortion throughout pregnancy, New Jersey has shown that even if the Supreme Court undoes Roe and Casey, the pro-life movement will still face an uphill battle across the country to establish legal protections for children in the womb."

#### Alfie Evans, R.I.P.
Here is a story on the death of Alfie Evans.

Here is a good essay by Carter Snead on the whole situation.

Here is an article from a few years ago by Prof. Laura Hoffman entitled "Hospital Medical Futility Policy & the Severely Disabled Child: Is Disability a Death Sentence?"

 

#### Allowing the Unborn to Live While Respecting Women's Free Will
Compromising the Uncompromisable: A Private Property Rights Approach to Resolving the Abortion Controversy is a new posting on SSRN.  This article, published in 2005 by two prolife professors, argues that medical technology allowing gestation outside the mother's womb may eventually erode the right to abortion, if that right is understood to mean the right to take the life of the unborn child.  Arguing for an "evictionist" position, the authors advocate laws that would limit the means of abortion to those which provide the greatest opportunity for the unborn child to flourish while respecting the woman's right to control her own body.  

The authors approach their task more philosophically, rather than arguing the law.  This philosophical approach may explain, but not excuse, the authors failure to discuss their proposal in terms of cases like Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricans and Gynecologists, 476 U.S. 747 (1986) and Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S.  124 (2007). 

In Thornburgh, the Court struck down a Pennsylvania statute requiring that for post viability abortions doctors use  techniques  that  provided the best opportunity for unborn child to be aborted alive unless, in physician's good-faith judgment, the technique “would present a significantly greater medical risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman.”  The Thornburgh Court also struck down a requirement that a second physician be present during abortions when viability was possible in order to attend to the medical needs of the child.  See Thornburgh, 476 at 768-71.  

Planned Parenthood Ass'n of Kan. City v. Ashcroft, 462 U.S. 476, 485 n. 8 (1983) overruled Thornburgh in part, upholding a Missouri statute requiring two physicians to be present for third-trimester abortions because the statute could be interpreted to create a health exception to that requirement.

It is clear that Thornburgh and Ashcroft are relevant to the proposal that women be allowed access only to abortion techniques that provide some opportunity for the child to live. 

Less clearly relevant, but still potentially very helpful is the case of Gonzales v. Carhart. Gonzales v. Carhart upheld the federal partial-birth abortion ban by focusing in part on the impact of the abortion technique on the fetus as well as the mother.

The article also fails to provide any real discussion on the technological advances they claim may allow the legislatures and courts to support requiring women to use abortion techniques that enhance the child's possibility of survival.  In fact the only support they give for their optimism is note 135, a 2003 New Republic article predicting the advent of artifical wombs within five years.  It would be good to know what has happened in the eight years since the magazine article and what peer-reviewed articles exist reporting on efforts to develop artificial wombs.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the article is the discussion of how the proposal is consistent with Judith Jarvis Thomson's A Defense of Abortion.

I am hopeful the authors will expand on the legal analysis and scientific support for their proposal in a followup article. That would be a worthwhile project.

Block, Walter E. and Whitehead, Roy Joe, Compromising the Uncompromisable: A Private Property Rights Approach to Resolving the Abortion Controversy (July 19, 2011). Appalachian Journal of Law, Vol. 4, 2005. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1889452

#### Alzheimer's and assisted suicide
Here is a link to an important story by Dave Andrusko who discusses a recent Time magazine op-ed by two researchers from the Hastings Center who argue that new tests that may make it possible to detect  Alzheimer's before symptoms of dementia have developed should open up conversations about assisted suicide. Andrusko's title ("Finding a Justification for Assisted Suicide that Trades on Our Worst Fears") gives a sense of where the conversation is headed. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/07/finding-a-justification-for-assisted-suicide-that-trades-on-our-worst-fears/#more-3067

Richard M.

#### AMA Continues Discussion of Assisted Suicide
From the National Right to Life News, here is a report on the American Medical Association's continued discussion of assisted suicide. This is a critical debate because the views of major medical organizations often carry considerable weight in considering whether to legalize assisted suicide.

#### AMA Ethics Committee Affirms Opposition to Physician-Assisted Suicide
Here is a link to a piece by Wesley Smith reporting on the good news that the AMA Ethics Committee has reaffirmed its opposition to the legalization of physician-assisted suicide. This is important news because changes by medical associations on this issue have been relied upon in jurisdictions that have legalized assisted suicide. This action by the AMA Ethics Committee will likely be influential in states considering legalization and in courts considering the constitutionality of bans on assisted suicide.

#### AMA retains opposition to assisted suicide
Here is a story in the National Right to Life News on the vote by the AMA to retain its opposition to assisted suicide. This is a significant decision because the views of major medical associations often have an important impact when states consider legalizing assisted suicide.  The AMA's position is that physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician's role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.

#### AMA votes to continue its evaluation of assisted suicide
The AMA, which has long opposed physician-assisted suicide, is in the midst of a reevaluation of this position. A change would have enormous consequences because the views of medical organizations are often relied upon when legislatures and courts consider the issue in various contexts.

As noted on this blog recently, the AMA's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs issued a strong report recommending that the AMA retain its opposition to physician-assisted suicide. Earlier this week, however, the AMA House of Delegates voted not to accept that report and decided to further reevaluate the issue. The issue may come up for a vote at the AMA meeting in June 2019.  Here is a story on the House of Delegates decision.

#### American Academy of Religion call for papers
One very large venue for presenting papers is the annual AAR/SBL meeting. This year it will be in Baltimore Nov. 23-26.  Paper proposals are due this Friday (Mar. 1), which doesn't give you much time, but there are a LOT of areas to present in. You may already be working on something that will fit right in.

Below is the list of various clusters, sections, groups, and seminars.  Proposals are accepted from a wide variety of disciplines, so long as they have something to do with religion. The Call for Papers is here.

Clusters
Arts, Film, Literature, Media, Popular Culture, Visual Culture, and Religion
Social Theory and Religion
Sections

Arts, Literature, and Religion
Buddhism
Christian Systematic Theology
Comparative Studies in Religion
Ethics
History of Christianity
North American Religions
Philosophy of Religion
Religion and Politics
Religion and the Social Sciences
Religion in South Asia
Study of Islam
Study of Judaism
Teaching Religion
Theology and Religious Reflection
Women and Religion

 Groups

African Diaspora Religions
African Religions
Afro-American Religious History
Animals and Religion
Anthropology of Religion
Asian North American Religion, Culture, and Society
Augustine and Augustinianisms
Bible in Racial, Ethnic, and Indigenous Communities
Bible, Theology, and Postmodernity
Bioethics and Religion
Black Theology
Body and Religion
Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis
Buddhism in the West
Buddhist Critical–Constructive Reflection
Buddhist Philosophy
Childhood Studies and Religion
Chinese Religions
Christian Spirituality
Christianity and Academia
Cognitive Science of Religion
Comparative Approaches to Religion and Violence
Comparative Religious Ethics
Comparative Studies in Hinduisms and Judaisms
Comparative Theology
Confucian Traditions
Contemplative Studies
Contemporary Islam
Contemporary Pagan Studies
Critical Approaches to Hip-Hop and Religion
Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion
Cultural History of the Study of Religion
Daoist Studies
Death, Dying, and Beyond
Eastern Orthodox Studies
Ecclesiological Investigations
Evangelical Studies
Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection
Gay Men and Religion
Hinduism
Indigenous Religious Traditions
International Development and Religion
Interreligious and Interfaith Studies
Islamic Mysticism
Jain Studies
Japanese Religions
Kierkegaard, Religion, and Culture
Korean Religions
Latina/o Critical and Comparative Studies
Latina/o Religion, Culture, and Society
Law, Religion, and Culture
Lesbian-Feminist Issues and Religion
Liberal Theologies
Liberation Theologies
Martin Luther and Global Lutheran Traditions
Men, Masculinities, and Religions
Middle Eastern Christianity
Mormon Studies
Music and Religion
Mysticism
Native Traditions in the Americas
New Religious Movements
Nineteenth Century Theology
North American Hinduism
Open and Relational Theologies
Pentecostal–Charismatic Movements
Platonism and Neoplatonism
Practical Theology
Pragmatism and Empiricism in American Religious Thought
Psychology, Culture, and Religion
Queer Studies in Religion
Qur'an
Reformed Theology and History
Religion and Cities
Religion and Disability Studies
Religion and Ecology
Religion and Food
Religion and Humanism
Religion and Migration
Religion and Popular Culture
Religion and Public Schools: International Perspectives
Religion and Science Fiction
Religion and Sexuality
Religion in Europe
Religion in Europe and the Mediterranean World, 500–1650 CE
Religion in Latin America and the Caribbean
Religion in Southeast Asia
Religion, Affect, and Emotion
Religion, Colonialism, and Postcolonialism
Religion, Film, and Visual Culture
Religion, Holocaust, and Genocide
Religion, Media, and Culture
Religion, Memory, History
Religion, Sport, and Play
Religions in Chinese and Indian Cultures: A Comparative Perspective
Religions, Medicines, and Healing
Religions, Social Conflict, and Peace
Religious Conversions
Ricoeur
Ritual Studies
Roman Catholic Studies
Sacred Space in Asia
Schleiermacher
Science, Technology, and Religion
Scriptural Reasoning
Scriptural/Contextual Ethics
Secularism and Secularity
Sikh Studies
Sociology of Religion
Space, Place, and Religious Meaning
Tantric Studies
Theology and Continental Philosophy
Theology of Martin Luther King Jr.
Tibetan and Himalayan Religions
Tillich: Issues in Theology, Religion, and Culture
Transformative Scholarship and Pedagogy
Transhumanism and Religion
Vatican II Studies
Wesleyan Studies
Western Esotericism
Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society
Women of Color Scholarship, Teaching, and Activism
World Christianity
Yoga in Theory and Practice
Yogācāra Studies
Seminars

Christian Zionism in Comparative Perspective
Global Perspectives on Religion and HIV/AIDS
Religion and the Literary in Tibet
Stand-Alone MA Programs in Religion

#### American College of Pediatrics responds to Belgium's child euthanasia
Lifenews.com reports, in "American College of Pediatricians Blasts Belgium for Legalizing Child Euthanasia," on and posts the statement by the ACP critical of Belgium's new euthanasia law which puts no lower limit on the age of euthanasia. The Netherland's law allowing infant euthanasia is also considered.
Physicians are healers not killers. An individual’s future quality of life cannot be predicted by caregivers. The role of the physician is to promote health, cure when possible, and relieve pain and suffering as part of the care they provide. The intentional neglect for, or taking of, a human life is never acceptable, regardless of health system mandates. The killing of infants and children can never be endorsed by the American College of Pediatricians and should never be endorsed by any other ethical medical or social entity.

#### American College of Physicians rejects assisted suicide
Here  is a report on another encouraging development. The American College of Physicians has just issued a position paper rejecting the legalization of assisted suicide.

#### American Preference for Boys
A new Gallup poll asked a random sample of 1,020 American adults whether they'd prefer to have a girl or a boy if they could only chose one. Forty percent said they prefer a boy, 28 percent said they would want a girl, and the rest didn't mind either way or weren't sure. 

This survey is troubling in light of reports that sex-selective abortions are occuring in America, and the larger worldwide practice noted in Ross Douthat's piece in the NYT yesterday.  The evidence of sex-selective abortion in the US is reviewed here.

#### Americans United for Life Report on Planned Parenthood
Today on Public Discourse, Bill Saunders--Senior Vice President and Senior Council for Americans United for Life--reports on AUL's in-depth investigation into Planned Parenthood.  The report discusses overbilling by Planned Parenthood, failure to abide by state parental involvement laws, involvement in opposing common sense regulation of abortion, and disregard of FDA regulations on the use of RU-486.

#### amicus brief filed by pro-life organizations in pregnancy discrimination case
Here is a link to a good post by Tom Berg about an amicus brief filed by pro-life organizations in an important case involving pregnancy discrimination. University Faculty for Life was one of the pro-life organizations that joined the brief. Counsel included UFL President Teresa Collett. Tom Berg's post contains a link to the brief.

Here's a bit from Tom's post--

"The case raises an important issue concerning the effectiveness of the PDA’s protection for pregnant employees, since many employers make accommodations for some but not all employees with physical limitations.  The pro-life organizations’ brief argues that pregnancy should be treated as well as conditions the employer deems important enough to accommodate, not as poorly as conditions the employer refuses to accommodate.  The brief points to the background of the PDA, which had support in 1978 from pro-life groups and pro-life members of Congress.  Their rationale was that protecting pregnant women from discrimination reduced pressure on economically vulnerable women to abort their children, and strengthens the fundamental right to bear children and raise a family.  The brief makes those arguments as well."

http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2014/09/amicus-brief-of-pro-life-organizations-re-pregnancy-discrimination.html

Richard M.

 

#### Amicus Brief for NAACP v. Horne
Teresa Collett, UFL President and Professor at the University of St. Thomas Law School in Minneapolis, was the primary author of an amicus curiae brief in the Arizona case of NAACP et. al. v. Tom Horne, et al.. The brief defends a challenged Arizona law that prohibits abortions for the purpose of sex selection.

Among the amici listed in the "Statement of Interest" is UFL. Here is the description of UFL from the brief:
University Faculty for Life (“UFL”) is an interdisciplinary association of North American scholars dedicated to promoting research, dialogue and publication by faculty who respect the value of human life. Its membership includes experts in medicine, sociology, law, psychology, and religion. UFL members believe abortion takes the lives of innocent human beings, harms women, and impedes creation of a just society in which women and men are recognized as equal.
I especially like the last sentence, which gives the justification for our broad, interdisciplinary focus.

 

#### Amicus Briefs filed urging US Supreme Court to hear Indiana abortion case
Here is a link to an article discussing amicus briefs that were recently filed urging the United States Supreme Court to review the federal court of appeals decision striking down Indiana's abortion statute.  The Indiana law prohibits abortions when the doctor knows that the sole reason for the abortion is the race, sex, or disability condition; the law also regulates the disposition of fetal remains.

Here is a link where all of the court filings are available. More than a dozen amicus briefs have been filed with the Supreme Court. Briefs have been filed on behalf of 19 states and by various pro-life and disability groups. The groups filing briefs include Americans United for Life, the Susan B. Anthony List, and the Fondation Jerome Lejeune (this brief was prepared by the Bioethics Defense Fund).

#### An abortion exception to the First Amendment?
Many have complained that cases that involve abortion seem to be subject to a special set of rules--rules that have had the effect of advancing abortion rights. Mark Rienzi, who teaches law at Catholic University, takes up the question whether there is an abortion exception to the first amendment. His paper evaluates recent efforts to regulate speech about alternatives to abortion. His conclusion is that "the type of pregnancy center speech restrictions being enacted and considered by various legislatures are impermissible under the First Amendment."  http://www.fed-soc.org/doclib/20101223_RienziEngage11.3.pdf

Richard M.

#### An article on retirement communities
Homiletics and Pastoral Review recently published an article of mine called "The Catholic Identity of a Retirement Community" Because of the Catholic incorporation of natural law thinking, much of it is applicable or translatable  in non-Catholic settings, and it certainly bears on the pro-life message about the ethical treatment of the elderly.

#### An article on the "personhood movement"
Here is a link to an article in The New Republic entitled--"A Radical New Ploy to Destroy Roe v. Wade--Which Just Might Work." It is the article that occasioned the blog debate on personhood that Teresa addressed in her earlier post on this blog.

The article focuses on the "personhood movement" with particular attention to a personhood referendum that might be on the ballot in Mississippi in November. The personhood strategy has, as the article discusses, been controversial within the pro-life movement. Some in the pro-life movement prefer an incremental strategy, a strategy that has significant success thus far.

Richard M.

#### Anderson and George on the Fate of Roe v. Wade
Here is a good op-ed by Ryan Anderson and Robert George urging the US Supreme Court to overrule Roe v. Wade. Here is their conclusion:

"While the current court may not be willing to go so far as to invalidate all legislation protecting abortionists, at the very least it must correct its own prior mistake of barring states from enacting legislation protecting unborn persons. Failure to do so will be, and will certainly be regarded as, a gross betrayal of the trust of those who worked to build a court whose members would be faithful constitutionalists. Worse than that, it would be a betrayal of persons in the womb."

#### Announcement of 2015 UFL Essay Contest Winners
The University Faculty for Life Scholarly Achievement Award in Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research has encouraged students since 2004 to submit their best work for the cause of life.  This year’s entries continue to challenge contest judges with high quality submissions.  The eight essays received in the Creative Writing and Research categories total 33,180 words, 282 footnotes, and 63 bibliographic entries—an impressive increase in the quantity of materials that judges evaluated for 2015.

As in previous years, the quality of this year’s entries made the selection challenging.  The judges greatly appreciate that you, the faculty, took time from your busy schedules to promote the contest and to encourage your students to submit their best work.  Thank you!

Recognizing the quality of students’ research efforts, the judges are proud to announce that there are seven honorable mentions for this year’s contest.  As you will see, the range of topics submitted is impressive.  In the Creative Writing category, the honorable mentions are:

	Elizabeth Mitchell, a student at the University of Kansas Medical Center, for her essay “Generation Y: A Comment on Abortion Versus The Millennials”

and

	Anton Sorkin, a student at Emory University School of Law, for his essay “A Trial of  Strength: Scenes of Violence; Building a Case for the Right of a Willing Father to His Unborn Child”

In the Research category, the honorable mentions are:

	Anna Capizzi, a graduate student in the moral theology program at Seton Hall University, for her essay “Human Trafficking as a Moral Evil in History and Today”
	Sharon M. Gutkowski, a graduate student at Seton Hall University, for her essay “The Catholic Analysis of the Moral Absolute Against Abortion”
	Andrew S. Kubick, a student in the post-master’s certificate program, concentrating in bioethics, at Holy Apostles College and Seminary, for his essay “Marriage and a Culture of Life”
	Miriam McKee, a student at Loras College, for her essay “Connecting Kingdom of Heaven Parables to the Morality of Capital Punishment”

and

	Katie Tipton, a student at Patrick Henry College, for her essay “Will We Survive Our Technology? A Study of The Singularity in Light of the Doctrine of Personhood”

And finally, the first place winner of this year’s University Faculty for Life Scholarly Achievement Award in the Research category is

	Meaghan Frawley, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Notre Dame, for her essay “On the Nature of the Fetus”

The University Faculty for Life Essay Contest is a significant way that pro-life students can be challenged to write mellifluous creative writing or research work, to build their publication portfolios, to be recognized by pro-life academics for their work, and, most importantly, to exercise their talents to advance the cause of life in the academic environment.  This year’s entries continue to demonstrate that students are willing to use their talents for life-affirming purposes with encouragement from you, their faculty.  May next year’s contest inspire students to submit even more challenging work!

 

#### Annual Cardinal O'Connor Conference for Life
The annual Cardinal O'Connor Conference for Life in Washington D.C. will be held on Saturday, January 24, just after the March for Life.

 

The conference features great speakers and break-out sessions.

The Mass will be celebrated by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, President of the USCCB and Archbishop of Louisville.

For more information, see the conference web page.  You can also find videos from previous conferences there.

The Conference is co-sponsored by the University Faculty for Life, as well as Georgetown Right to Life, Catholic Daughters of the Americas, and the Georgetown Knights of Columbus.

#### Another Article about Dr. Jérôme Lejeune
Here on the National Catholic Register web page is an article about Dr. Jérôme Lejeune, "father of modern genetics," candidate for Catholic sainthood, and former adviser to UFL. The focus of this article is on the U.S. Jérôme Lejeune Foundation, which continues the work he started to help care for people with Down's Syndrome and to look for a cure. Lejeune's wife, Birthe, is quoted extensively.

#### Another Life Issue: The Death Penalty
A former student of mine works for the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska. He asked me to write a guest column for the diocesan newspaper clarifying what the teaching of the Catholic Church is regarding the death penalty. Since this is a topic of interest to many people, both Catholics and non-Catholics - in the few days since I wrote the column, there has been local and national media coverage of a statement by the Massachusetts Catholic bishops opposing the death penalty for the Boston Marathon bomber - and since along the way I commented on the relationship between the death penalty on the one hand and abortion and euthanasia on the other, I thought I'd share the column here.

#### Another NY Times article on the "brave new world"
Here is a link to another NY Times article discussing the ethical implications of pre-natal tests that allow pregnant women to learn the sex of their unborn children.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/sunday-review/if-you-really-really-wanted-a-girl.html 

The article focuses on the new tests that allow women to learn the sex of their baby very early during pregnancy, with the concern that this will increase abortions for reasons of sex-selection. The article concludes: "fetal DNA tests for sex determination and other traits present 'issues that I don’t think many general obstetricians are ready to deal with,' Dr. [James] Egan [of the University of Connecticut] said. 'It’s a brave new world.'"

It is hard to understand the moral hand-wringing. Since 1973, abortion has been permissible for any reason at all. It is not clear why abortion for reasons of sex-selection is causing such concern. But this may be an example, such as partial birth abortion, where supporters of abortion rights finally have to come to grips with the reality that abortion takes a human life.

Richard M.

#### Another resource on Obama contraceptive mandate
You might want to have a look at this National Catholic Bioethics Center statement, including its explanation of the importance of the HHS "call for comment," lasting through September, regarding the definition of "religious employer."

#### Anscombe Centre Reports on Euthanasia
Here is a link to a short item in the National Right to Life News mentioning that the Anscombe Bioethics Centre has recently released three papers on euthanasia. The papers are by David Albert Jones, John Keown, and Mark Komrad. All three are of high quality and are strongly recommended.

Jones's paper is entitled "Defining the Terms of the Debate: Euthanasia and Euphemism." Keown's paper is entitled "Voluntary Euthanasia & Physician-assisted Suicide: The Two 'Slippery Slope' Arguments." Komrad's paper is entitled "First, Do No Harm: How Canadian Law Allows for Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) for Patients with Psychiatric Disorders."

#### AP story on impact of state restrictions on abortion
Here is a link to an AP story on the impact of state laws restricting abortions. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ABORTION_LAWS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

The article notes that state funding bans have had the greatest impact.

Richard M.

#### AP story on wave of pro-life laws
Here is a link to an AP story on the wave of pro-life laws that have been passed this year by state legislatures. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ANTI_ABORTION_LAWS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT 

Here's the last paragraph in the article: "We talk about accumulating victories," said Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life. "Any time you want to make long-term change, on an issue that's been extremely controversial, you do it by developing momentum. You don't change something all at once overnight."

Richard M.

#### Appellate court stops abortion sought by undocumented teen
Here is a link to a Washington Post story on the latest developments in the lawsuit the ACLU filed to force the Trump Administration to facilitate an abortion for an undocumented teen, who is in a shelter in Texas. The teen was detained by U.S. officials in September after crossing the border illegally. She is being held by HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for undocumented minors until they can be reunited with family members. The teen is 15 weeks pregnant.

A federal trial court ordered the Trump Administration to facilitate the abortion, but a federal court of appeals has now stayed that order.

Here is an earlier story about the litigation from LifeNews.com.

 

#### Are iPS cells already embryos?
Top researcher: iPS cells ‘probably’ already embryos, have already made cloned animals

An iPS cell is an induced pluripotent stem cell. They had been thought by many to be ethically safe to destroy during research and therapy. New research is calling that into question.  (Via LifeSiteNews.com.)

#### Are women legislators more liberal on abortion?
The Culture Wars Meet State Politics: Gender, Representation and Abortion Policy provides an interesting analysis of the fact that the number of women in a state legislature increases the likelihood that a state will have more liberal abortion policies.  The authors find a difference in the manner in which women candidates are recruited in the Democratic and Republican parties, as well as the type of districts in which they are successful. Democratic women legislators tended to be associated with women's groups more frequently than Republican women legislators, and while Democratic women are electable in all types of Democratic leaning districts, Republican women tend to be elected in the more liberal Republican districts.

#### Argentina Defeats Bill to Legalize Abortion
Here and here are links to stories about the good news that the Argentina Senate voted against legalization of abortion.

#### Argentine Supreme Court abortion decision
Here  is a link to a C-Fam story on a recent abortion decision from the Supreme Court of Argentine. The Court found that there was a constitutional right to abortion in the case of rape. This conclusion was based on international law, although not the type of international law actually embodied in a treaty. Rather, the decision was based on the work of various UN agencies and international organizations that support "reproductive rights." This decision illustrates the grave dangers of the efforts of various UN entities that seek to promote abortion.  http://www.c-fam.org/fridayfax/volume-15/argentine-supreme-court-falls-prey-to-un-treaty-monitoring-bodies.html

Richard M.

#### Arizona Asks Supreme Court to Allow Down Syndrome Ban to go into Effect
Here is link to a report on Scotusblog discussing the State of Arizona's effort to enforce its law prohibiting abortions when the sole reason for the abortion is the genetic abnormality of the unborn child. The law was enjoined by a lower court. Arizona filed a emergency motion with the United States Supreme Court asking the Court to lift the injunction and allow the law to go into effect while the challenges in the lower courts continue.

 

 

#### Arizona bans race- and sex-based abortions
The Arizona legislature has passed a law banning abortions for reasons of race and sex. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/03/30/arizona-brewer-signs-ban-on-sex-selection-race-based-abortions/

Here is an earlier post on this issue. http://uffl.org/blog/?p=543

Richard M.

#### Arizona house passes bill banning abortions for sex-selection and for reasons of race
Here is link to a LifeNews story describing the Arizona House's approval of  a bill  banning abortion for reasons of sex-selection or because the unborn child is of a certain race. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/02/22/arizona-house-oks-ban-on-sex-selection-race-based-abortions/ This bill deals attempts to address a growing problem. Although it seems unlikely the courts will uphold such bans, this effort serves imprtant educational goals. 

Richard M.

#### Arkansas enacts law banning abortion due to Down Syndrome diagnosis
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News on good news from Arkansas. Governor Asa Hutchison signed a law banning abortions due to a Down syndrome diagnosis. Arkansas is the seventh state to ban abortions for this reason. Indiana has asked the US Supreme Court to review a federal court of appeals decision invalidating Indiana's law banning abortions for various discriminatory reasons (race, sex, or disability of the unborn).

#### Arkansas legislature passes ban on sex-selection abortions
Here is a link to a LifeNews story about the Arkansas legislature's recent vote to pass a ban on sex-selection abortions.

#### article by Gaylord and Molony on "A Woman's Right to Know"
I just saw this new article by Scott Gaylord and Thomas Molony. The article is entitled "Casey and A Woman's Right to Know: Ultrasounds, Informed Consent, and the First Amendment."http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2017041 The authors conclude "that the  goverment has broad authority to mandate disclosures designed to inform a woman's decision about an abortion." The article contains a very useful discussion of the relevant state statutes and the ongoing litigation about state ultrasound laws.

UPDATE: Here's another mention of the recent article by Professors Gaylord and Molony. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2012/03/law-professors-explain-why-ultrasound-laws-are-constitutional/  Gaylord and Molony also wrote an op-ed piece on the constitutionality of ultrasound laws that was recently published in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Richard M.

#### article in Journal of Medical Ethics supports infanticide
Here is a link to an article in the National Right to Life News discussing an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics supporting infanticide. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2012/02/ethicists-give-thumbs-up-to-infanticide/ According to the JME article, since newborns are only "potential persons" they don't have moral value.

Here is commentary from Dave Andrusko,  http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2012/02/infanticide-why-not/

and Wesley Smith. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/02/25/killing-baby-non-persons-all-grist-for-bioethics-mill/

UPDATE: Here is an update from Wesley Smith on the authors' "apology." http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/03/06/the-great-after-birth-abortion-non-apology-apology/

Richard M.

#### article on rediscovering consciousness in people diagnosed as "vegetative"
Here is a link to a story by Dave Andrusko from National Right to Life noting a recent article in Discover magazine by Kat McGowan entitled "Rediscovering Consciousness in People Diagnosed as 'Vegetative.'" http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/07/unlocking-the-mysteries-of-%e2%80%9cdisorders-of-consciousness%e2%80%9d/#more-2990 

As Andrusko states:

"But what McGowan’s overview of massive amounts of research demonstrates is both that PVS is much more of mystery than is commonly understood and that way, way too often patients are diagnosed in a PVS when their real “disorder of consciousness,” while severe, is something far less."

Richard M.

#### article on the abortion rights of inmates
I just read an interesting article with the title "Rules for Radical Lawyers: Advancing the Abortion Rights of Inmates" by Mark Egerman of the National Abortion Federation. (See http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1554401)

The article deals with an issue that has received a lot of attention in the literature. Many scholars have focused on the backlash caused by litigation designed to bring about social change and have argued that these litigation efforts may be counterproductive. Egerman's article discusses this and, as the title of his article suggests, draws from the writings of Saul Alinsky and contends that, properly planned, litigation can be an effective way to bring about social change. He applies his model to the issue of reproductive rights in prisons.

Egerman's effort is designed to advance "progressive" causes with a particular focus on abortion rights. His article is subject to criticism on many grounds. It is, however, an interesting read and provides useful information about the litigation strategies that led up to Roe v. Wade.

Richard M.

#### articles on sex-selection abortion in India
Here and here are articles discussing the huge problem of sex-selection abortions in India. Here is a link to a short article of mine dealing with the constitutionality of laws banning sex-selection abortions.

#### Assistance with pro-life research library
Assistance needed in working with a pro-life research library.  Responses from our members who have Library Science credentials are especially welcome.  This message was posted on the UFL group on LinkedIn and sent to the listserv as well.

The collection of the research library in question has a variety of materials: over 10,000 monographs (estimate), several shelves of paper copies of serials, audio and VHS tapes, and correspondence from pro-life activists. Unfortunately, the material is not on any online cataloging system.  Specific questions are:

1. Is there a bibliographic services software package that enables easy cataloging of such a collection?

2. Would adding holdings in WorldCat be just as good, presuming that the research institution registers its library with WorldCat?

3. Does any UFL member have experience with cataloging correspondence and other material?

4. Are there other questions which should be addressed for such a collection to become available to scholars?

For privacy’s sake for the institution involved, please do not post replies on the UFL group on LinkedIn. Instead, please email me directly at DrJeffKoloze@att.net if you have any input.  Responses will be collated and a course of action suggested for the research library.

#### Assisted Suicide - A New Campaign in Canada
The issue of assisted suicide seemed to have been settled in Canada in 1993 by the Supreme Court decision in the case of Sue Rodriguez. In a five to four decision the Court ruled that the state's obligation to protect the vulnerable outweighed the rights of individuals to self-determination. Now two new cases, one from British Columbia and another from Quebec, are working their way through the court system and are expected to reach the Supreme Court next year. In each case a person with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has requested the right to an assisted death.

Predictably, the Globe and Mail, the most influential national paper in Canada, and long a leading advocate of abortion and euthanasia,  has greeted these cases with an editorial  suggesting  that “Parliament could debate and pass into law principles that define a legal, doctor-assisted death. Then it could be up to the colleges of physicians in the various provinces to decide whether to include them in their codes of ethical practice. The decision could be made between a patient and a physician.” It notes that since the Rodriguez decision “assisted suicide has become legal in several jurisdictions, including Oregon, Washington, Montana, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Canadian legislators can learn by example” It goes on to argue that “It is of paramount importance, clearly, to ensure that those requesting assisted suicide are competent, and are certain of their choice. Those who sign an advanced directive should be allowed to change their minds, even if they develop dementia, and come to fiercely oppose their earlier decision. The law needs always to err on the side of life.” Despite these reservations the editorial then endorses the Dutch approach on the assumption that  the safeguards in the law are actually enforced.

In reality the Dutch experience demonstrates that all sorts of apparent protections are of little avail and that once the idea of the sanctity of life is abandoned abuses become widespread. As reported in LifeSiteNews Alex Schadenberg, director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, points out what actually happens: “Where euthanasia is legal, such as the Netherlands and Belgium, there are euthanasia deaths that occur without request or consent,” he said, pointing out that recent studies out of Belgium show that 32% of deaths by euthanasia were done without request or consent and that 47% of deaths by euthanasia were not reported.” As well “The most recent Dutch government study found that there were 550 deaths without request or consent and 20% of the time, the doctors that caused the death of their patients, were not reported.”

 

 

 

 

#### assisted suicide debate continues
I think there is a perception that the issue of assisted suicide has receded in importance. The issue does not seem to have the high profile it did in the mid-1990s when Jack Kevorkian was on the loose and when it appeared that the US Supreme Court might create a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide.  But the issue is still very much with us.

Earlier this week, Zenit published a helpful survey of the worldwide debate on assisted suicide. See http://www.zenit.org/article-29854?l=english

Richard M.

#### assisted suicide in Montana
Here is a story in the National Right to Life News about assisted suicide in Montana. Assisted suicide is technically prohibited in Montana but a decision by the Montana Supreme Court in 2009 held that a doctor who assisted in the death of a terminally ill, mentally competent patient would be immune from a homicide prosecution; the Court did not reach the broader state constitutional issue of whether there was a constitutional right to die with dignity.

The Montana legislature tried to change this by explicitly prohibiting assisted suicide. It appeared that the measure was going to pass but a legislator changed her vote and opposed the measure. Apparently she had intended to vote in favor of the ban on assisted suicide. Her mistake in voting prevented the passage of the law.

 

#### Attorneys: student literary question
A law school student would like to know if there has ever been a "fake opinion" written about the Supreme Court decisions of Roe v. Wade (1973) or Casey (1992).  The student would like to write such a fictional account if it has not already been done.  Please reply to JeffKolozePhD@sbcglobal.net; I will forward your suggestions in confidence unless you grant permission otherwise.

#### AUL Report on the Comstock Act
Here is a link to a report on the Comstock Act by Carolyn McDonnell, Litigation Counsel with Americans United for Life. This report is a valuable resource concerning an increasingly important issue.

Here is AUL's abstract:

"The report shows that 18 U.S.C. §§ 1461–1462 contain mail-order abortion rules that restrict the mailing of abortifacient matter through the United States Postal Service, express companies, common carriers, or interactive computer services. In addition, the report responds to some myths surrounding the laws, and demonstrates that nonuse has not repealed these laws, that repealing these laws would have negative public policy implications, and that the laws do not prohibit the mailing of surgical instruments and drugs for purposes other than abortion."

#### AUL urges Senate to confirm Judge Gorsuch
Here is a link to a LifeNews story discussing Americans United for Life's support for the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court.

#### AUL Writing Contest
Here is a link with information about The Advocates for Life Legal Writing Contest sponsored by Americans United for Life. This is a great opportunity for law students to use their talents to serve the pro-life cause.

http://www.aul.org/writingcontest/ 

Richard M.

#### Austin Ruse on international law and the right to life
On September 24, 2010, I posted (http://uffl.org/blog/?p=154) a link  to John Keown's review of Rita Joseph's book "Human Rights and the Unborn Child."

Here is Austin Ruse's comment on Rita Joseph's position. http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/249555 Ruse's comment is entitled "Sadly, No International Right to Life that includes the Unborn." His commentary has some cautionary words about relying on customary international law as the source of a right to life.

Richard M.

#### Austin Ruse's evaluation of the Princeton conference on abortion
Here is Austin Ruse's decidedly negative evaluation of the recent Princeton conference on abortion. http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/pro-life-naifs-in-the-big-city.html 

Richard M.

#### Australian state legalizes assisted suicide
Here is a report in the National Right to Life News about the Australian state of Victoria's legalization of assisted suicide. Previous legalization efforts in other Australian states have failed. The vast majority of legalization efforts in the US have failed too. There is certainly not an inexorable move in favor of legalization but the passage of this measure will certainly strengthen the pro-assisted suicide movement.  This development is therefore quite worrisome.

#### Austrians Debate Abortion in Public Hospitals
In 1974 Austria removed all criminal penalties for abortions in the first three months of pregancy.  While most people interpret this action as making abortion legal, some public authorities argue that the change merely removed any penalty for conduct that remains illegal (or at least publiclly disfavored). The change was challenged on the basis that it violated the Austrian Constitution and Article 2 of the European Convention.  The Austrian Supreme Court rejected the challenge in Decision of the Constitutional Court of 11 October 1974, 39 Erkentnisse und Beschluesse des
Verfassungsgerichthofes (1974), summarized in ANNUAL REVIEW OF POPULATION LAW, Vol. I, 49 (1974), and abortion was deciminalized during the first trimester of pregancy. A 2007 brief by the Center for Reproductive Rights contesting the existance of an international right to life and relying in part on the Austrian decision can be found here.  

Whatever the proper interpretation of the 1975 change, abortions can be obtained throughout Austria, although there is some geographic difference in availability. Many public hospitals provide abortion in the Eastern half of the country, but only a few private practiitioners in the West.  A brief UN report on reproductive issues can be found here.  Yahoo news is reporting that some public officals are pressing to tie federal money for hospital care to making abortions more widely available.  The news story can be found here.

#### Author Responds to "Allowing the Unborn to Live While Respecting Women's Free Will"
Dr. Block asked that I post his response to my comments on his law review article in "Allowing the Unborn to Live While Respecting Women's Free Will."  Here is Dr. Block's response in its entirety:

I appreciate that you characterize us as "two prolife professors," because that is EXACTLY how I, at least, see our article. You are also quite correct in maintaining that our paper "argues that medical technology allowing gestation outside the mother’s womb may eventually erode the right to abortion, if that right is understood to mean the right to take the life of the unborn child..." But, this applies, in my view, ONLY if evictionism is adopted in the near term. If not, and assuming the battle continues to be won by the pro choice, not the pro life side, then it is my view that nothing will change even when medical technology is available to render the implications of evictionism that the pro life side would welcome (all fetuses are saved, none are murdered), possible. That is to say, until and unless people massively DROP pro life, and take up the libertarian theory of evictionism, we will not succeed in saving these precious very young human beings.

As for the rest of the comment, it criticizes us not for what we say, but for what we do not say (we do not cover all pertinent law cases). I'm not sure that's Kosher.  On the other hand, I am grateful for having these cases pointed out. If and when we write about this subject again, we will certainly consider including our commentary on them.

Best regards,

Walter

Walter E. Block, Ph.D.
Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics
Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business
Loyola University New Orleans
wblock@loyno.edu

#### Autonomy, Restraint and the Common Good
The views of Joseph Raz, Ronald Dworkin, John Finnis, and Robert George on the value and limits of personal autonomy are examined in a new article by Adam McLeod, The Mystery of Life in the Laboratory of Democracy: Personal Autonomy in State Law. "The article then examines several different areas of state law where one might expect a principle of autonomy to be implicated, and articulates six important lessons that one can glean from state law about the relationship between personal autonomy and other human goods."  The six principles Professor MacLeod identifies are:  

(1) Personal Autonomy is an Important Condition of Pre-Moral Choosing Among
Basic Human Goods.
(2) The State Properly Restricts Exercises of Personal Autonomy That Cause Harm. 
(3) Personal Autonomy is an Important Condition of the Realization of Reflexive
Basic Goods.
(4) Some Autonomous Acts Are Valueless.
(5) Not All Basic Goods Appear to be Reflexive.
(6) Neither a Principle of Personal Autonomy nor the Unconditional Value of Some
Basic Goods Conclusively Resolves Every Controversial Issue.

His discussion of assisted suicide as supportative of the proposition that "some autonomous acts are valueless" will be of particular interest to UFL members.

#### Ave Maria Law Review articles of interest
The latest edition of the Ave Maria Law Review contains several articles of interest. Here are the citations: Clarke D Forsythe & Rachel N. Morrison, Stare Decisis, Workability, and Roe v. Wade: An Introduction, 18 Ave Maria L. Rev. 48-108 (2020); Paul Benjamin Linton, The Pro-Life Movement at (Almost) Fifty: Where Do We Go From Here?, 18 Ave Maria L. Rev. 15-34 (2020); Richard S. Myers, Lower Court "Dissent" From Roe and Casey, 18 Ave Maria L. Rev. 1-14 (2020).

The issue also contains a book review of the second edition of John Keown's important book "Euthanasia, Ethics, and Public Policy. The book review (by Richard Myers) is at 18 Ave Maria L. Rev. 35-47 (2020).

#### Ave Maria Law Review publishes symposium on conscience
The Ave Maria Law Review (Vol. 9; Issue 1)(2010) has just published a symposium on "The Future of Rights of Conscience in Health Care." The symposium grew out of a conference that Lynn Wardle (BYU) and I organized. The conference was generously supported by University Faculty for Life and was also sponsored by the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU and Ave Maria School of Law. The conference was held at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU last February. The symposium issue of the Ave Maria Law Review contains papers by (I'll list them in order of appearance) Lynn Wardle, Kent Greenawalt, Rob Vischer, Armand Antommaria, Robin Fretwell Wilson, Richard Myers, Jill Morrison and Micole Allekotte, and T.A. Cavanaugh.

Richard M.

#### Bachiochi on Dignity and Autonomy
Erika Bachiochi, visiting fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, recently wrote an article, "Abortion and the Supreme Court's Misguided Notions of 'Autonomy'," for National Review about the relationship of "dignity" to "autonomy" in Supreme Court abortion jurisprudence. In it she contrasts the American version of "dignity" influenced by Kant and Mill with the European version, which relies more heavily on the Judeo-Christian intellectual tradition, leading to more restrictive abortion laws.

#### Baltimore law targeting pregnancy aid centers held unconstitutional
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on an encouraging ruling from a federal judge that held unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds a Baltimore law that targeted pregancy aid centers. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/28/judge-strikes-baltimore-law-targeting-pregnancy-centers/ On January 11, 2011, I posted a link to an article by Professor Mark Rienzi (from CUA law school) addressing this topic. http://uffl.org/blog/?p=432 This decision is an important victory for Mark and the pro-life movement.

Richard M.

#### Baylor conference on Human Dignity and the Future of Health Care
I just saw the schedule for the 2010 Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture. The Symposium, which will be held October 28-30, will address the topic of "Human Dignity and the Future of Health Care." The line-up of speakers looks quite impresive. See http://www.baylor.edu/ifl/index.php?id=75356

Richard M.

#### Beckwith on 21st century arguments for life
Frank Beckwith was interviewed by Reformed pro-life activist Jonathon Van Maren in "Pro-Life Arguments for the 21st Century: Dr. Francis J. Beckwith & Jonathon Van Maren." He talks about the popular and academic arguments that are effective in the 21st century.

#### Beckwith on Roe at 40, part 2
The second installment of Frank Beckwith's analysis of the Roe decision has been posted on The Catholic Thing web page. In this part, Beckwith address two components of Blackmun's opinion, "(1) the argument from the claim that the fetus is protectable under the Fourteenth Amendment if it is in fact a person, and (2) the argument to state interest in prenatal life from fetal viability."

The first part is available here.

#### Beckwith on Roe v. Wade
For those that haven't read it, here is a link to Frank Beckwith's 2006 article, "The Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade, and Abortion Law," from Liberty University Law Review. In it he argues that Roe v. Wade was in no way a "moderate" judicial opinion, although it is widely presented as such.

#### Beckwith on the Pope's speech before Congress
Michael Foley and UFL member Frank Beckwith appeared on KCEN television to discuss the significance of the pope's visit to the United States. Click here to access the video. There are several videos of the interview.

#### Beckwith on the Positivist Mentality and the Gospel of Life
Frank Beckwith summarizes some of the points he made in his talk at the Evangelium Vitae conference in Rome (June 15-16) in this The Catholic Thing essay, "Positivist Mentality and the Gospel of Life." In it he looks at Pope John Paul II's diagnosis of the intellectual conditions that lead to a Culture of Death in our day, esp. "scientism."

#### Beckwith website redesigned
Frank Beckwith has had his web page redesigned.  It features his writings on Law and Ethics and on Religion and Culture, as well as his contributions to reference works and his book review.

#### Beckwith's new book
Francis Beckwith's new book, Taking Rites Seriously: Law, Politics, and the Reasonableness of Faith will soon be released by Cambridge University Press.
Taking Rites Seriously is about how religious beliefs and religious believers are assessed by judges and legal scholars and are sometimes mischaracterized and misunderstood by those who are critical of the influence of religion in politics or in the formation of law. Covering three general topics – reason and motive, dignity and personhood, nature and sex – philosopher and legal theorist Francis J. Beckwith carefully addresses several contentious legal and cultural questions over which religious and non-religious citizens often disagree: the rationality of religious belief, religiously motivated legislation, human dignity in bioethics, abortion and embryonic stem cell research, reproductive rights and religious liberty, evolutionary theory, and the nature of marriage. In the process, he responds to some well-known critics of public faith – including Brian Leiter, Steven Pinker, Suzanna Sherry, Ronald Dworkin, John Rawls, and Richard Dawkins – as well as to some religiously conservative critics of secularism such as the advocates for intelligent design
 

#### Beckwith's Vatican talk in honor of Evangelium Vitae
Francis Beckwith's talk, "On Making the Case for Life: St. Peter’s Counsel to Always Be Ready," which he gave at a Vatican conference on John Paul II's encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, was recently published in National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly (Winter, 2014). You can find a link to it on Beckwith's blog, Return to Rome.

#### Belgian Jury Clears Doctors in Euthanasia Case
Here is a link to a blog post by Alex Schadenberg on the resolution of the prosecution of three doctors who assisted in the death of Tine Nys, whose family claimed she was euthanized in violation of the Belgian law.

#### Belgium and euthanizing the mentally ill
Here's a very good blog post from Alex Schadenberg on the welcome criticism of the all-too-common practice in Belgium of euthanizing the mentally ill.

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2016/10/criticism-of-belgium-policy-of-euthanizing-the-mentally-ill/#.WBC4q_zrvIV

#### Belgium's euthanasia law and European pro-life movement
Belgium's new law is most distressing not only because of the lost lives of the innocent children, but also, as Richard Stith points out, marks a new low in our devaluing the intrinsic life of each individual person.  As Archbishop Leonard, the primate of the Catholic Church in Belgium is quoted as warning in this National Catholic Register articke, "We are opening a door that nobody will be able to close” -- if that door hasn't already been opened long ago.

There are signs, though, that there is a new awakening to the dignity of life in Europe, esp. on the topic of abortion. There were protests in Belgium, as well as in Spain, where there will soon be a vote on the reversal the liberalizing of the abortion laws by the previous socialist government and where there was recently a million-person pro-life rally.

#### Bernard Nathanson, RIP
Bernard Nathanson, a former abortionist who became an influential pro-life advocate, died today at age 84. http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/bernard-nathanson-dead-at-84/

Richard M.

#### Biden affirms support for Roe v. Wade
Here is a link to a story from the Catholic News Agency reporting on a statement issued by President Biden in which the new President affirms his support for abortion rights and for appointing judges who will support abortion rights. Biden has also indicated his support for abortion funding. Most think he will soon reverse the Mexico City policy, which prohibits funding for international agencies that perform or promote abortion.

#### Bill Saunders comment on the UN and abortion rights
Here is a commentary by Bill Saunders on an action by the UN to honor the Center for Reproductive Rights. Saunders notes that the characterization of the Center as a supporter of human rights depends on the errroneous assumption that abortion is a human right.   http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/19/un-forgets-abortion-is-not-an-international-human-right/ 

Richard M.

#### Bill Saunders on "selective reduction"
Here is a good article by Bill Saunders on the NY Times article on "selective reduction." http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/24/selective-reduction-abortions-higlight-art-problems/

Richard M.

#### Bill Saunders on two pro-life heroes
Here is a link to a piece by Bill Saunders (of Americans United for Life) on two pro-life heroes--Pope John Paul II and Terri Schiavo. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/07/heroes-for-life-pope-john-paul-ii-and-terri-schiavo/

Richard M.

#### bill would ban sex selection or race-based abortions
Here is a LifeNews story on the Prenatal Nondiscrimintaion Act. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/29/congressional-bill-would-ban-sex-selection-race-based-abortion/ The Act, introduced by Trent Franks from Arizona, "would prohibit knowingly performing or financing sex-selection or race-based abortions."

Richard M.

#### BioEdge--Bioethics News from Around the World
BioEdge isn't a scholarly site, but it does sometimes point to research and studies. Also, it helps us keep abreast of developments "on the ground." There are also comment discussions of each post.

#### Bioethics in Clinical Care
Dr. Andrew Trew will conduct a series of five workshops titled “Bioethics in Clinical Care” in the metropolitan Cleveland, Ohio area February 16 and 23 and March 2, 16, and 23.  Participants can earn ten CME/CEU credits.  Topics include bioethics consultations, treatment decisions, competent and incompetent patients, early life and end of life care, advanced directives, life support and feeding tubes, assisted suicide and “aid in dying” concerns, and regenerative medicine/stem cells.  To register call 440-943-7474.  Interested persons may call or email me (937-215-4337; DrJeffKoloze@att.net) for further information or program materials.

#### Biotechnology and the spirituality of St. Francis
At the 2013 Life and Learning Conference in San Francisco, William Hurlbut, Ph.D., gave a memorable plenary talk called "“Stem Cells, Eggs and Embryos: the Controversy Continues.” A friend recently told me about a talk that Dr. Hurlbut gave called "Biotechnology & The Spirituality of Saint Francis." Here is a link to the audio of the talk. In the talk Hurlbut contrasts our biotechnological culture and its values of avoiding pain and maximizing pleasure with the self-sacrificing "romance" of St. Francis's spirituality. 

#### Bishop Olmstead, Abortion, and Excommunication
On the Mirror of Justice blog, see http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2010/05/agree-with-sr-margaret-mcbrides-decision-or-not.html#tp, Michael Perry links to a story about Bishop Olmstead, who informed a Catholic nun that she had incurred the canonical penalty of excommunication for her role in approving an abortion.  I don't intend to enter into the canon law aspects of the case.

The underlying moral issue is, though, of utmost importance. The Catholic nun, Sister Margaret McBride, approved the abortion on the grounds that the abortion was necessary to save the life of the mother. There is some doubt about whether this was in fact the case but assuming that this were true, what do folks think of the moral issue?

In my view, the abortion here (even under Sister McBride's understanding of the facts) violated the moral principle that one may not directly intend to take the life of an innocent human being. That principle holds even when there is a good reason (eg., saving the life of another) for such an act. When the basic moral principle is undermined, we are, as John Finnis noted some years ago, all in jeopardy. For our own life would then depend on someone thinking that no greater good would be accomplished or greater evil avoided by killing us. (For a discussion of this point in the context of assisted suicide, see http://www.uffl.org/vol11/myers11.pdf.

Richard M.

#### Blogs for life
I would like to highlight blogs in this issue of ProVitae.  If any members write or contribute to a blog, or if you know of a blog that expecially helps us in our pro-life scholarship, please let me know. My e-mail address is available in the most recent issue of ProVita, found here.

#### Bob Destro on the Terri Schiavo case
I highly recommend Bob Destro's article on the Terri Schiavo case. "Learning Neuroscience the Hard Way: The Terri Schiavo Case and the Ethics of Effective Representatation," at 78 Miss. L. J. 833-903 (2009).

There have been scores of articles on various aspects of the Schiavo controversy. (My own short paper on the Schiavo case is available here. http://www.uffl.org/Vol14/myers-04.pdf )

Bob Destro's article is one of the few that can be characterized as necessary reading.  Bob writes from a unique perspective. He played an important role in the latter stages of the litigation; he represented Governor Bush and also the Schindler family in efforts to protect Terri's life.

The article is lengthy and difficult to summarize in a blog post. The distinctive features of the article include its focus on the rapidly changing state of neuroscience as it relates to the diagnosis and potential for rehabilitation of patients with severe brain injuries, its contention that withdrawal of treatment in a case such as Terri's ought to require the due process protections that we require in capital cases, and its focus on the ethical obligations of the legal and medical professionals involved.

Richard M.

#### Book review of Jane Gilroy's book on Ellen McCormack
From the Homiletic & Pastoral Review, here is a review of Jane Gilroy's book, A Shared Vision: The 1976 Ellen McCormack Presidential Campaign. The review is by Clara Sarrocco. http://www.hprweb.com/2012/05/the-latest-book-reviews-2/

Richard M.

#### Book review of Lisa De Niscia's Momentary Mother
Lifeissues.net has published my book review of Lisa De Niscia's novel, Momentary Mother.  The review (at http://lifeissues.net/writers/kol/kol_31bookreview.html) summarizes attributes of characters in De Niscia's novel and critiques its literary features, especially its use of a Hemingway literary device.

#### Brain Death pro and con
Dr. Accad

Not all members of UFL agree on every aspect of the pro-life cause. This was evident at one of the sessions during the UFL Life and Learning Conference in June. There were two presentations, one against brain death as a criterion for allowing the removal of organs for transplant and the other for.

The first talk, "Of Wholes and Parts: a Thomistic Critique of the 'Brain Death' concept," was given my Michel Accad, MD, from the University of California, San Francisco. Accad responded to two common arguments for brain death, the "central organ of integration argument" and the "necessary organ for rational thought" argument. He also addressed the "non-human soul" proposal. Accad used the "virtual presence" concept from Thomism to show that the active heart is the sign of human life.

Prof. Moschella

Next, Melissa Moschella, of the Catholic University of America, presented on "Deconstructing the Brain Disconnection-Brain Destruction Analogy and Clarifying the Rationale for the Neurological Criterion of Death." Moschella's argument responded to Alan Shewman's  proposal that if the inability of the brain to control the body is the criterion for death, then persons with high cervical spinal cord trans-section injuries are dead.  Her argument not only addressed the proper metaphysical principles for understanding the relationship between the brain and the person, but also gave some criteria for identifying an organism. Her conclusion is that the complete cessation of brain activity is death because the brain is irrevocably unable to be the material basis for breathing and mental activity.

A lively discussion from the floor followed the talks.

#### Briefs in the Whole Woman's Health case
Here is a post from Teresa Collett (as posted on the Mirror of Justice blog by Greg Sisk) concerning the Whole Woman's Health case (the Texas abortion case currently pending before the United States Supreme Court).

 

On March 2 the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, a challenge to a Texas statute requiring abortion clinics meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers and doctors providing abortions have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. Plaintiffs claim that enforcement of these requirements will cause the closing of 75% of all abortion clinics in the state, which should be considered an undue burden per se. They also argue that the requirements do little or nothing to advance the health and safety of women, given the comparative safety of abortion over carrying a child to term. Texas responds that two to three Texas women end up in emergency rooms every week due to complications from abortion. The requirements advance women's safety by assuring that abortions occur in facilities that are equipped to respond to complications that arise during an abortion, and the admitting privileges provide a second check of a doctor's competency as well as promoting continuity of care should a woman need hospitalization,

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, several legal scholars, a variety of medical associations, University Faculty for Life, and the Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas lined up on the side of Texas in their amicus briefs. These briefs are available on <www.scotusblog.com> , ABA Supreme Court preview, and the Texas Attorney General website at https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/hb2/texas-women.

#### Briefs Supporting Louisiana's Admitting Privileges Law Filed with Supreme Court
On March 4, 2020, the US Supreme Court will hear oral argument in June Medical Services v. Gee, which deals with the constitutionality of Louisiana's law requiring that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at local hospitals. The state of Louisiana's brief and the amicus briefs supporting Louisiana were filed in late December 2019 and early in January 2020. Here is a link to the Supreme Court's docket, which contains links to all of the filings.

The Department of Justice recently filed a brief supporting the constitutionality of Louisiana's law. The government's brief also raised the possibility that the Court should overrule the Whole Woman's Health case, in which the US Supreme Court invalidated a similar Texas law. Here is a link to a story on Scotusblog about the DOJ brief.

#### British Columbia pro-life activists found guilty of violating ‘bubble zone’ - for handing out copies of the law under which they were convicted
In a remarkable case, two Canadian pro-life activists have been convicted of violating an abortion "bubble zone". What is remarkable is that they were not handing out pro-life literature, but rather copies of  British Columbia’s Access to Abortion Services Act - the act under which they were convicted. An account can be found at http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bc-pro-life-activists-found-guilty-of-violating-bubble-zone

#### British doctor defends sex-selection abortions
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on Wendy Savage's defense of sex-selection abortions. Her views, expressed in an interview with the Daily Mail, were condemned by many. MP Mark Field stated: "Suggesting that women should be able to abort babies solely because they happen to be either male or, much more usually, female, is utterly abhorrent.”"

#### British Medical Association rejects move to change position on assisted suicide
Here is a link to a blog post by Dr. Peter Saunders reporting on this positive development. http://pjsaunders.blogspot.com/2016/06/bma-rejects-attempt-to-push-it-neutral.html This news from England comes at the same time as the American Medical Association's unfortunate decision to approve a resolution to study the question of assisted suicide. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/american-medical-association-approves-resolution-to-study-assisted-suicide

Richard M.

#### British medical students support conscience rights
Here is a link to an encouraging story from LifeNews.com about a recent poll of British medical students that finds them in favor of conscience rights. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/19/poll-british-med-students-back-abortion-conscience-rights/

Richard M.

#### Brooks misses the real problem
Thanks to Richard for posting the links to Wesley Smith and Ryan Anderson's reactions to David Brooks.  Independent of Brooks' endorsement of abandoning our efforts to extend human life (something more easily embraced from an American armchair than, say, an African AIDS hospital), Brooks misses the bigger issue for our budget.  

Most of our social welfare programs assumed an increasing population, but with more and more Americans choosing to have no children or only one or two, there are not enough young people to support the old.  As a culture we have increasingly decided we don't want the burdens of parenting, yet we are surprised when we lose its benefits as well. With all due respect to Mr. Brooks, the problem is not that people are increasingly dying lingering deaths.  It is that they are dying alone.

#### C-Fam Lauds US Decision to defund UNFPA
Here is a link to a press release from C-Fam praising the Trump Administration's decision to defund UNFPA, which has a long record of promoting abortion around the world.

#### California legalizes assisted suicide
Governor Brown signed the new California law legalizing assisted suicide. See Michael Cook's column.

http://www.mercatornet.com/careful/view/go-west-old-man-go-west/16963

Since the 1997 Supreme Court decisions in Washington v. Glucksberg and Vacco v. Quill rejecting constitutional challenges to laws banning assisted suicide,  proponents of the "right to die" have had only modest success in advancing their agenda. This development in California changes that significantly. California accounts for over 10 % of the US population. Moreover, California is often a leader on important cultural issues. California was one of the first states to liberalize its abortion laws.

Supporters of the culture of life need to intensify our efforts to protect life.

Richard M.

#### Call for Abstracts on Health and Human Rights
The 2011 Queen’s University Health and Human Rights Conference  has issued a call for abstracts of reseach to be presented during its poster session on September 30 - October 1st, 2011 at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. The conference is a student-led initiative with a mandate to build bridges between the humanities, sciences and social sciences. The Conference is an inter-disciplinary forum for academics, practitioners and students to address global challenges at the intersection of health care and human rights. 

All primary investigators, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research project students, medical students, and clinical residents are invited to present their original research at a poster presentation session on October 1st, 2010. Individuals interested in presenting should submit their abstract(s) according to the following instructions:
1. Abstracts should be single-spaced in 12-point font.
2. The title should be in block letters and bold.
3. The authors names and affiliations should appear immediately after the title.
4. The presenters name should be underlined.
5. Abstracts should be 250 words maximum.
Please submit entries as an attachment to abstracts@queenshhrc.ca by September 15th, 2011.

#### Call for Papers - Rethinking Feminism & the Law
Women’s Studies Center (Sponsored by UGC), ILS Law College, Pune in partnership with the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales and the Faculty of Law, University of Technology, Sydney is pleased to announce the inaugural
 
International Conference on Feminism and the Law: Revisiting the Past, Rethinking the Present & Thinking the Way Forward 10 – 12 February, 2012 ILS Law College, Pune, India

CALL FOR PAPERS

ILS Law College, Pune, India
 
The International Conference on Feminism and the Law: Revisiting the Past, Rethinking the Present and Thinking the Way Forward aims to bring together academics, lawyers, researchers, students and activists from India and around the world to explore how women’s experiences have been structured, impacted, controlled, or ignored by law; the challenges posed by globalization,  growing militarization and fundamentalism to the law and legal structures, and the possibilities and limits of realizing women’s rights through the law.
 
The main lines of inquiry around which the Conference will be structured are as follows:
 •Feminist Litigation
 •Feminization of Poverty
 •Teaching Gender
 •Gender & Violence 
 •Women & the Environment 
 •Women & Globalization 
 •Women & Reproductive Rights/Health
 •Women & Sexuality
 •Women & Trafficking
 •Women & Work
 •Women  & Militarization
  
SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS
 
Prospective participants are invited to submit ABSTRACTS of up to 300 words to ilslaw@vsnl.com before August 15, 2011. All submissions must include the speaker's/speakers' name(s), title of paper, affiliation(s), and contact information (address, email, & telephone number).

#### Call for Papers for Australian Feminist Law Journal
Call for Papers, Australian Feminist Law Journal, General Issue.
Submit by Sept 1, 2011.

The call provides this description of the journal and paper requirements:

The Journal seeks to focus upon scholarly research using critical feminist approaches to law and justice, broadly conceived. As a critical legal journal we publish research informed by critical theory, cultural and literary theory, jurisprudential, postcolonial and psychoanalytic approaches, amongst other critical research practices. Articles may range from longer, academic pieces from a critical perspective (which will be refereed) to shorter Praxis notes on issues confronting women and men in their interactions with the law. The length of an article is variable, but normally ranges from 8000 to 12,000 words. We particularly wish to encourage interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary writing focusing on law. The AFLJ normally publishes a General Issue and a Special themed Issue each year: in 2011 volume 35 will be the General Issue and volume 36 of 2012 a Special Issue. Early submission of papers is welcomed.

#### Call for Papers in First Things
The call for papers for the 23rd annual University Faculty for Life conference is on page 63 of the most recent issue of First Things (October 2012 issue). (The same information is on the UFL website, www.uffl.org )

The conference will be at the University of San Francisco on May 31-June1, 2013.

Richard M.

 

#### Call for Papers on End of Life (March 30 deadline!)
Call For Papers and Presenters Honoring Patients' Treatment Choices at the End of Life: New Tools, New Challenges, New Limits
Hamline University School of Law, Saint Paul, MN, November 8-9, 2012
The Health Law Institute at Hamline University and the Hamline Law Review seek proposals for presentations and papers for our all-day fall CLE/CEU Symposium on Friday, November 9, 2012. Our Symposium will examine the problems and solutions to issues currently arising at the intersection of medical law and end-of-life care.
TOPICS: Potential topics include, but are not limited to: - Legal and medical issues concerning the use of POLST orders, especially in Minnesota; - Institutional and community responses to medical futility disputes; - Legal issues involved in end-of-life planning, including advance directives, health care proxies, DNR orders, living wills and the initiation and cessation of artificial support systems (such as artificial nutrition and hydration); - A view of the decision-making process in end-of-life cases from the perspective of the parent, the family and the medical provider; - Decision-making for the "unbefriended" patients without surrogates; - Role of lawyers, guardians ad-litem and the courts in end-of-life cases; - Applicable legal and medical standards in end-of-life cases; - Ethical issues related to the roles of attorneys, medical providers and family members in end-of-life decision-making; and - Any other related topics.
SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: Anyone interested in speaking at the Symposium and/or publishing in the Hamline Law Review's Symposium issue should submit both a CV and a 500-word abstract to: healthlawsym2012@hamline.edu by March 30th, 2012.

#### Call for papers on maternal mortality - submission due this month!
The British based journal, Reproductive Health Matters has issued a call for papers to appear in its May 2012 issue.  While this is an unlikely forum for prolife academics, we are all committed to answering the question posed for the May issue, "how can we reduce maternal mortality?" The call for papers can be found here. The bias of the journal can be seen in some of the propsed topics below, but some topics are well within the expertise and interest of some UFL members.

RHM seeks papers about why some countries are reducing maternal deaths and others are not and what has changed in the past decade:

•what national programmes and services exist? what do they consist of? what have they achieved and not achieved? who regulates and monitors them? who is paying for them?

•do countries know what they need to know and how to find it out? how are they measuring progress? why is there progress in some places and no progress in others?

•are the same women dying now as 10 and 20 years ago, or different women? 

•have more women begun attending antenatal and delivery care with a skilled attendant? post-partum care (if there is any)? what led more of them to start doing so? or if not, why not?

•what is the content and quality of maternity and abortion care? which health professionals are providing it? what competencies have they attained and are they able to use them?

•how to resolve the seemingly unending debate about TBAs [traditional birth attendants]? has anything changed for women since 1987 in countries where TBAs still attend most deliveries?

•are more countries carrying out verbal autopsies, sisterhood studies, maternal death audits, than a decade ago? are they keeping good clinical records, analysing and using them to make change happen? 

•has information about maternal morbidity increased? is attention to the women who survive complications also increasing or not? is there more and more effective care for complications of unsafe abortion than 10 or 20 years ago? is D&C being replaced by MVA?

•are lifesaving essential drugs, equipment and procedures to treat obstetric complications and emergencies more available in resource-poor countries than in the past? how is the international war by big pharma against generic and affordable drugs affecting maternity and abortion care?

•what about midwifery and abortion training for health professionals in hospitals, primary care and the community – is that happening or increasing? are there fewer shortages? are there really more skilled attendants – what do those words mean in the training curriculum and practice?

•deaths from complications of unsafe abortion have fallen in some parts of the global South in the absence of law reform – why? have countries moved forward on making abortion safe and legal?

•why is unsafe abortion a dirty word in influential safe motherhood circles again, or not mentioned at all?

•are infants and children taking resources and attention away from women’s needs, in spite of the “continuum of care” ideal?

•why is maternal mortality no longer addressed as a part of sexual and reproductive health and rights? 

•why only “mothers”? pregnancy doesn’t happen only to mothers – why have the MDGs [UN Millenium Development Goals] been allowed to make a comprehensive women’s health agenda obsolete?

#### Call for US Bioethics Commission to Step Down?
BioEdge is reporting that "the Project on Government Oversight, has called upon the chair of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to step down after allegations of ghostwriting by professors at her university."  The story can be found here.

#### Camosy interview
Artur Rosman of the Patheos blog called "CosmosTheLost" recently interviewed Charles C. Camosy is Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics at Fordham University. "The Anti-Abortion Supermajority: Beyond the Abortion Wars." Camosy is the author of Beyond the Abortion Wars: A Way Forward for a New Generation (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2015). In the interview Camosy discusses whether there is any purely secular argument for the dignity of the unborn and the role of prophetic action in the pro-life movement.

#### campaign to target gendercide
Here is LifeNews story on the launch of a campaign to target gendercide--the practice of eliminating girls through sex-selection abortion and infanticide. The campaign highlights the growing gender imbalance in countries such as China and India. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/new-campaign-targets-gendercide-sex-selection-abortions/

Richard M.

#### Can you be prolife and support embryonic stem cell research?
Prof. Greg Dolin says yes in his article, A Defense fo Embryonic Stem Cell Research, on SSRN. Originally published in Fall 2009 issue of the Indiana Law Journal, Prof. Dolin argues that the fact that an embryo is a human life does not morally preclude all destructive stem cell research and that a person can reasonably be opposed to abortion while supporting embryonic stem cell research.  I remain unpersuaded, but I give him an A for effort.

#### Canadian decision invalidating a ban on assisted suicide
Here is a LifeNews.com story about a decision from the British Columbia Supreme Court holding a ban on assisted suicide unconstitutional. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/15/canadas-assisted-suicide-ban-struck-down-in-court/

Here's critical commentary from Wesley Smith. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/06/15/bc-judge-creates-right-to-suicide/

Richard M.

#### Canadian infanticide case
Here is the LifeSiteNews story about a stunning case in Canada. http://www.lifesitenews.com/judge-rules-no-jail-time-for-infanticide-because-canada-accepts-abortion.html

In 2005, a 19 year old woman gave birth to a baby and then killed the newborn. After several failed efforts to prosecute her for 2d degree murder, she was convicted of the lesser charge of infanticide. The judge gave her a suspended sentence, in part because Canada doesn't prohibit abortion. According to the judge, the lack of an abortion law indicates that "while many Canadians undoubtedly view abortion as a less than ideal solution to unprotected sex and unwanted pregnancy, they generally understand, accept and sympathize with the onerous demands pregnancy and childbirth exact from mothers, especially mothers without support.” The judge continued: “Naturally, Canadians are grieved by an infant’s death, especially at the hands of the infant’s mother, but Canadians also grieve for the mother.” 

Richard M.

#### Cardinal Burke's excellent speech to the Rome Life Forum
Here is a link to an excellent speech given by Cardinal Raymond Burke to the Rome Life Forum on May 3, 2014. The speech is largely a reflection on Pope Saint John Paul II's great encyclical Evangelium Vitae. http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/cardinal-burke-s-address-to-international-pro-life-conference-in-rome-may-3rd

Richard M.

#### Cardinal Dolan on assisted suicide
Courtesy of LifeNews, here is a good piece from Cardinal Dolan, the Chair of the US Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities,  on the importance of renewing the battle against assisted suicide.

http://www.lifenews.com/2016/11/21/cardinal-dolan-calls-for-renewed-fight-against-doctor-assisted-suicide/

#### Cardinal O'Connor Conference on January 23, 2011 at Georgetown
Here, below, is the link to the 12th annual Cardinal O'Connor conference. This will be a terrific conference. The conference is sponsored by Georgetown University Right to Life, Georgetown University Knights of Columbus, Georgetown University Catholic Daughters of the Americas, and University Faculty for Life.

http://www.cardinaloconnorconference.com/

Richard M.

#### Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life
Here is the link to the Cardinal O'Connor Conference website. http://cardinaloconnorconference.com/

This year's conference, which will be held at Georgetown University on January 22, 2012, features an impressive line-up of speakers including Archbishop Chaput and US Representatives Chris Smith, Jean Schmidt, and Ane Maria Buerkle.   

Richard M.

#### Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life
This year's Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life, cosponsored by UFL, will be held on Saturday, January 23, the day after the March for Life, at Georgetown University in the District of Columbia.

The keynote speaker this year is Reggie Littlejohn, founder and President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers.

Other speakers and panelists will include:

Kathleen Eaton Bravo, founder and CEO of Obria Medical Clinics (formerly Birth Choice)

Erika Bachiochi, legal scholar and expert on Catholic social teachings and women's rights

Ryan Scott Bomberger, co-founder of TheRadianceFoundation.org

Fr. Stephen Fields, S.J., Associate Professor of Historical and Philosophical Theology at Georgetown University

John Keown, Rose F Kennedy Professor of Christian Ethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics.

William L. Saunders, Jr., Senior Vice President for Legal Affairs and Senior Counsel at Americans United for Life

Father Charles P. Connor, Assistant Professor of History and Systematic Theology, Pastoral Theology, and Spirituality at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland

For more information on the conference and speakers, go to the conference web site.

#### Cardinal O'Connor Conference speaker update
Here are some more details about the speakers at the Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life this Saturday at Georgetown.

	Seán Cardinal O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston
	Panel: “The End of Intelligent Debate”

	Mona Charen, syndicated columnist and political analyst
	Richard M. Doerflinger, Associate Director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
	Mary Hasson, EPPC Fellow
	Father Joseph Koterski, Jesuit Priest of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus and philosophy professor at Fordham.
	Father Stephen Fields, Associate Professor of Historical and Philosophical Theology at Georgetown University

	Breakout Sessions

	Stephen Fields, SJ, Associate Professor of Historical and Philosophical Theology at Georgetown:  “Why the Natural Law is Pro-Life”
	Jennifer Lahl, founder and President of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network: “The Ethics of the New Modern Family”
	Vicki Thorn, foundress of Project Rachel and Executive Director of the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation & Healing: “The Biology of the Theology of the Body” and “There’s a Hole in My Soul”
	Damon Clarke Owens, Executive Director of the Theology of the Body Institute: “Theology of the Body: Building a Culture of Awe and Wonder“
	Elizabeth Yore, attorney and international child rights advocate: “Human Rights of Children: A Call to Action!”
	Steven Mosher, internationally recognized authority on China and population issues: “There are Too Many People on This Planet. Not.”
	Sr. Mary Gabriel, Sisters of Life: “The Life and Legacy of John Cardinal O’Connor”
	Wayne Hipley, Coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Ministry at St. William of York Church:  “Mercy and Forgiveness: A Life Issue Even for the Guilty”

#### Cardinal Ratzinger speech on threats to human life
I just had the occasion to re-read a terrific speech that then-Cardinal Ratzinger gave back in 1991 entitled "The Problem of Threats to Human Life."http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=187&repos=1&subrepos=&searchid=292732 The speech anticipated Pope John Paul II's great encyclical Evangelium Vitae.  http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae_en.html

Soon after re-reading the speech, I realized that Father John Conley, SJ, gave  a talk at the 2005 University Faculty for Life conference in which he highlighted the importance of the 1991 speech (and another later speech by Cardinal Ratzinger on freedom and truth). Here is Father Conley's assessment of these speeches: "Cardinal Ratzinger made a central contribution to the cause of human life by illuminating the background anthropological disputes, especially those concerning the nature of human freedom, that have made the case for the comprehensive right to life unintelligible in elite sectors of the Western world." http://www.uffl.org/vol15/conley05.pdf

The speeches (and Father Conley's essay) are well-worth reading.

Richard M.

#### Careter Snead on the constitutionality of laws banning abortion after 20 weeks
Here is a link to a good piece by Carter Snead on the constitutionality of laws (such as the recent Texas law)  banning abortion after 20 weeks to prevent fetal pain. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/07/10524/

Here is his conclusion:  "In summary, the Constitution does not prevent Texas from taking this very modest step to protect unborn children. There are no Supreme Court precedents that grapple with the unique features of SB1, and the powerful, novel state interest in which the bill is grounded. Relevant precedent suggests that a majority of the Court would treat the new state interest in protecting the lives of unborn children capable of experiencing pain as sufficient to justify the new law."

Richard M.

 

#### Carter Snead on the June Medical case
Here is a link to a good piece in First Things by Carter Snead on the June Medical case.

Here is his exhortation to the pro-life movement:  "Now is the time to get back on our feet and return to the work of building a civilization of love, radical hospitality, and legal protection for unborn children and their mothers. We have no choice but to continue to fight for the lives and dignity of these most vulnerable members of the human family."

And here is his conclusion: "June is a roadmap for tailoring arguments to the new swing vote on abortion, Chief Justice Roberts. It is certainly tempting to give up because there is still so far to go. But in the face of setbacks in the struggle for the equal protection of the law for every member of the human family, born and unborn, we must remind ourselves that none of it matters. We must find a way to win."

 

#### Carter Snead's New Book on Public Bioethics
Carter Snead's new book should be of interest to anyone interested in the life issues.  Here is a link to a press release describing the book. The book, which was published in October 2020 by Harvard University Press, is entitled "What it Means to be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics."

The book critiques the "expressive individualism" at the heart of much discourse on bioethics and contains insightful analysis of the current law on abortion, assisted reproduction, and end-of-life care.

#### Carter v. Canada
Here are a couple of articles on today's decision from the Supreme Court of Canada invalidating laws banning physician assisted suicide. The Court overruled its earlier decision in the Rodriguez case, which had rejected a constitutional challenge to such laws.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-canadas-top-court-rules-doctors-can-help-kill-patients

http://www.lifenews.com/2015/02/06/canada-strikes-down-ban-on-assisted-suicide-says-it-violates-the-right-to-life/

I haven't yet had a chance to read the decision. John Keown wrote a terrific article on the Carter case before the Court's decision. http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1718&context=ndjlepp

#### Catholic midwives can be forced to supervise abortions
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom today rejected the right to conscience claims of Mary Doogan and Connie Wood. Doogan and Wood are midwives who "are practicing Roman Catholics who believe that human life is sacred from the moment of conception and that termination of pregnancy is a grave offence against human life."  Doogan and Wood may now be forced to supervise abortions carried out by other members of the hospital staff. Links to the Court's opinion and a press release are provided below.

The Abortion Act of 1967 (as amended) sets forth a right to conscientious objection. The Act protects persons who have a conscientious objection to participating in abortions allowed by the statute. In this case, the Supreme Court interpreted the scope of the conscientious objection provision narrowly. A lower court had ruled in favor of Doogan and Wood, finding that the exemption extended to "any involvement in the process of treatment, the object of which is to terminate a pregnancy." The Supreme Court rejected that view and found that the statutory protection only extended to hands-on participation in the treatment, and not supervising the process, which is the role that Doogan and Wood objected to performing.

The Court did not consider the argument that Doogan and Wood's rights under the European Convention of Human Rights and another statute (the Equality Act of 2010), which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of religious belief, had been violated. The Court said that those issues were more subject to resolution in a proceeding brought by the midwives in an employment tribunal.

https://www.supremecourt.uk/decided-cases/docs/UKSC_2013_0124_Judgment.pdf

https://www.supremecourt.uk/decided-cases/docs/UKSC_2013_0124_PressSummary.pdf

Richard M.

#### Celia Wolf-Devine: scholarship on the life issues
Students who desire a deeper understanding of the philosophical bases of the life issues and academics who wish to demonstrate the diversity of perspectives within the pro-life movement may want to review Dr. Celia Wolf-Devine’s website: http://www.celiawolfdevine.com.

#### Censorship at Carleton University
Students are apparently being censored at Carleton University in Ottawa.  Officials say that the life-affirming positions of Carlton Lifeline conflict with an anti-discrimination passage in university policies which considers abortion only in terms of “a woman’s right.”  Carleton Lifeline can exist only if the group’s constitution is altered to reflect the university’s compulsory perspective on the issue.  The students could use support from life-affirming academics to uphold their free-speech rights.  More information on the controversy can be found at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/nov/10111606.html.

#### Cenzon-DeCarlo case dismissed
Here is a link to a LifeNews story about the dismissal of the Cenzon-DeCarlo case. http://www.lifenews.com/2010/11/23/state-5691/ Here is a link to the opinion. http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/2d1434d5-91d7-4482-a862-b1a3c100413a/3/doc/10-556_op%20%28PC%29.pdf#xml=http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/2d1434d5-91d7-4482-a862-b1a3c100413a/3/hilite/ 

Cathy Cenzon-DeCarlo, a pro-life nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital, was threatened with disciplinary measures if she didn't participate in an abortion. After the abortion, Cenzon-DeCarlo filed suit on the grounds that the hospital had violated the Church Amendment, which protects doctors and nurses from being forced to participate in abortions. In a decision yesterday, a federal court of appeals dismissed the suit on the grounds that the federal law does not allow private parties to sue to enforce the law.

Cenzon-DeCarlo still has a state case pending.

Richard M.

#### Cesarean Delivery at the Edge of Viability
The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act passed this year in four states (Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, & Oklahoma).  It prohibits performance of abortions from 20 weeks post-fertilization (22 gestational weeks) unless necessary to protect the life or physical health of the mother.  The tfollowing report notes that children born at this early age via ceasarean have a better chance of survival.

Cesarean Delivery at the Edge of Viability

The number of cesarean deliveries at extremely early gestational ages is growing; clinical conditions rather than race or ethnicity influence delivery mode.

Rates of extremely preterm birth have risen during the past 2 decades. Advances in neonatal care improve the likelihood of survival for infants born at the cusp of viability, but with such advances comes the temptation to offer ever more interventions. Now, one group of investigators has assessed U.S. cesarean delivery rates in periviable neonates during a 6-year period, and another group has examined whether racial or ethnic disparities in the rates of such deliveries are evident.

From 1999 through 2005, <1% of infants were born at 22 to 28 weeks' gestation; however, whereas rates of all births rose by 4% during this period, rates of extremely premature births rose by 7%. Cesarean delivery rates in extremely preterm infants rose from 43% in 1999 to 54% in 2005, but without an accompanying improvement in infant mortality (24% to 26%). When predictors of cesarean delivery at gestational ages from 23 to 24.6 weeks in three U.S. states from 1995 to 2005 were reviewed, neither race nor ethnicity was a significant predictor of delivery mode; rather, medical conditions were the most prominent factors. In particular, women with pregnancy-induced hypertension had almost 16-fold higher odds of cesarean delivery than did women without hypertension.

Comment: Although we have no clear evidence that cesarean delivery improves survival at the border of fetal viability, the percentage of women who undergo this procedure at early gestation is rising. Infants born by cesarean delivery have lower risk for death than do those born vaginally, but this difference likely reflects choices about which patients are offered cesarean delivery rather than survival advantages conferred by this mode of delivery itself. Cesarean delivery seems to be offered equitably across races and ethnicities. Overall, the rise in cesarean delivery rates at very early gestational ages raises important questions about how delivery mode is determined.

— Allison Bryant, MD, MPH

Published in Journal Watch Women's Health July 21, 2011

Citation(s):

Batton B et al. Extremely preterm infant mortality rates and cesarean deliveries in the United States. Obstet Gynecol 2011 Jul; 118:43.

Medline abstract (Free)

Tucker Edmonds B et al. Predictors of cesarean delivery for periviable neonates. Obstet Gynecol 2011 Jul; 118:49.

Medline abstract (Free)

#### challenge to SD abortion law to be reheard by the 8th Circuit
The Eighth Circuit has agreed to rehear en banc a challenge to a South Dakota law restricting abortion. http://www.argusleader.com/article/20111206/NEWS/312060031/Abortion-issue-appeal-gets-January-hearing 

The focus of the rehearing relates to a provision of the "law that requires a doctor to tell a woman seeing an abortion that she would face a higher risk of suicide by going through with the procedure." This part of the law was held unconstitutional earlier this year by a panel of the 8th Circuit but the case will be heard in January by the full court.

Richard M.

#### Challenging First Trimester Abortion Regulations
SSRN contains a new law review article by Professor Tracey Thomas, Back to the Future of Regulating Abortion in the First Term. Professor Thomas evidences her commitment to abortion rights both in the argument she makes and the sources she cites.  Her history of abortion regulation in the United States is drawn exclusively from James Mohr's Abortion in America (1978) and two legal articles by Cyril C. Means, Jr.,  an abortion-rights advocate and professor of law at NYU. Professor Thomas seems unaware of the more recent and comprehensive work on the history of abortion by Joseph Dellapena, Dispelling the Myths of Abortion or even the fact that the historical record of abortion regulation in America is deeply contested.  This oversight, whether intentional or due to a lack of knowledge, reduces the reader's confidence regarding the thoroughness of Professor Taylor's historical account of the two Supreme Court cases that are the primary focus of her article, City of Akron v. Akron Ctr. for Reproductive Health, 462 U.S. 416 (1983) and Ohio v. Akron Ctr. for Reproductive Health, 497 U.S. 502 (1990).

Yet even with that caveat, the article is still worth reading by those interested in the Court's treatment of parental involvement in a minor's decision to obtain an abortion and other regulations applied during the first trimester of abortion.  Professor Thomas describes her article this way:

"In the first half of 2011, more abortion bills have passed to restrict abortion than ever before. The 162 new abortion bills passed by 19 states in the first six months of the year dwarf the average number of abortion bills for the last three decades of 15 per year. Even more, these bills propose significantly more stringent limits on abortion than in the past, including mandatory ultrasound viewings, intensive counseling, and bans after the first fetal heartbeat at six weeks. These restrictions seem blatantly to defy the holding of Roe v. Wade permitting abortion in the first trimester, yet they continue to proliferate.

This Article provides the historical context for the current onslaught of proposed abortion bills by returning to two of the earliest Supreme Court cases of indirect regulation of abortion in the first term. It offers a legal history of the case, City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, and its follow-on case, Ohio v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health. For before the dust had even settled in the Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, legislators had moved to restrict its impact by passing laws to “protect women’s health and voluntary and informed consent.” In the Akron cases, the Court first rejected such attempts to limit abortion in the first term, but then subsequently upheld a first-term regulation, casting doubt upon its continued commitment to Roe. 

This legal history offers insights and analyses into the legislation of abortion gleaned from a review of the historical record in the Akron cases found in archives and long-forgotten files in dusty basements. It relies on interviews with key players in the cases to provide a fuller explanation of the political and social motivations behind the legal disputes. Revisiting the legal and factual details of these foundational cases of first-term abortion regulation offers a more nuanced understanding of the opposition to abortion and the unsatisfactory nature of the judicial compromises. For only one thing is clear: 'The decision in Roe v. Wade neither started nor ended the debate over abortion.'"

#### Changing Minds, Saving Lives
"Changing Minds, Saving Lives" is the title of a good essay by Nicholas DiFonzo (Rochester Institute of Technology) in the November 2011 of First Things. The essay is based on a talk that Nicholas delivered at the 2011 University Faculty for Life conference, whcih was held in June at the University of Notre Dame.

The essay discusses psychological research that sheds light on the strategies pro-lifers ought to use to most effectively persuade people of the merits of the pro-life position.  

Richard M.

#### Charles Camosy on the Texas Heartbeat Law
Here is a link to a good essay in Public Discourse by Charles Camosy. Here's a bit---

"Texas’s refusal to choose between the mother and her prenatal child constitutes a blueprint for the pro-life movement. If Roe and Casey fall, many more vulnerable women across the country will be without the access to abortion our throwaway culture has diabolically forced them to rely on. Pro-lifers must follow Texas’s lead and be at the ready to assist these women. We must make good on our claim that their legal and social equality does not require redistributing oppression to another vulnerable population."

#### Charlie Gard dies after life support is ended
Here is a story about the death of Charlie Gard. R.I.P.

#### Charlie Gard's parents end fight to save his life
Here is a link to a LifeNews story about the decision of Charlie Gard's parents to end their fight to save his life.

#### Chemical Abortion Case argued Before Supreme Court
Here is a link to a Scotusblog report on the chemical abortion case that was argued on March 26, 2024 before the US Supreme Court.

#### chemical abortion reversal
Here is a site that promotes an abortion reversal process. Do any of our readers in the medical fiedl know anything about this? Email me at provitanews@yahoo.com.

#### Chilean call for signatures
José Ignacio Martínez Estay, Vicerrector de Investigación y Postgrado at Universidad de los Andes in Chile, is looking for signatures of American professors on a letter to the editor supporting the right to life from conception to natural death and religious freedom. This is intended to counter pro-abortion letters on the other side that have US professor names. "Faced with...new assaults on human rights, we affirm affirm once again the inviolability of human life from conception to natural death, and the inalienable right of every person to profess a religious faith, and to express it freely without any coercion."

The letter has over 140 signatures from professors all around Latin America. If you would like to add your name, send a brief statement to that effect, together with the credentials they would like posted, asap to Prof. Jose Ignacio Martinez at jimartinez@uandes.cl.

Here is the text of the letter:
Señor Director,
Latinoamérica ha ido consolidando la democracia y la defensa de los derechos humanos. Van quedando en el pasado las graves violaciones que afectaron de manera especial el derecho a la vida, la libertad personal y la libertad de expresión.

Sin embargo, surgen hoy nuevas amenazas contra los derechos humanos, nuevas formas de atentados contra la dignidad humana y las libertades fundamentales. Entre ellas se cuentan el asesinato de seres humanos no nacidos, mediante la legalización y promoción del aborto, y la intolerancia religiosa. Muchas veces estas amenazas se presentan juntas, como ocurrió en días pasados en los deplorables hechos de violencia irracional ocurridos en la Catedral de Santiago.

Frente a estas nuevas agresiones a los derechos humanos, afirmamos una vez más la inviolabilidad de la vida humana, desde la concepción hasta la muerte natural, y el derecho inalienable de toda persona para profesar una fe religiosa y a manifestarla libremente, sin ningún tipo de coacción.
HT Richard Stith.

#### China's One-Child Policy
The NYT reports that parents of infants in China are claiming that government officials are abducting their children and selling them on the black market.  The story is here. Congressman Chris Smith (NJ), a staunch prolifer, has worked for years to awaken the American people and government to the evils of China's one child policy.  The 2009 congressional hearing can be found here; the 2004 hearing is here; and 1998 hearing is here.

#### Chris Kaczor on "A dubious defense of 'after-birth abortion'".
There have been numerous critiques of the infamous article by Giubilini & Minerva on "after-birth abortion." Chris Kaczor has been a forceful critic of the original article. J. Rasanen wrote a ctique of Kaczor's work and Chris has now published a response in Bioethics. Here is a link to Chris Kaczor's article entitled "A dubious defense of 'after-birth abortion': A reply to Rasanen."

#### Chris Kaczor on "Abortion, Conscience, and Doctors"
Here is a link to Chris Kaczor's defense of conscience rights. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/10/1922

Richard M.

#### Chris Kaczor's devastating rebuttal of an article by Chemerinsky and Goodwin defending abortion rights
Here is a link to an excellent essay by Chris Kaczor. The essay, which is entitled "The Ostrich Defense of Abortion," is a critique of a recent law review article by Chemerinsky and Goodwin. Here is a portion of Kaczor's conclusion:
"In sum, Chemerinsky and Goodwin’s defense of legal abortion does not take into account, let alone engage and refute, scholarly arguments from a pro-life perspective. ... They even seem unaware of philosophical defenses of abortion in tension with their view. Chemerinsky and Goodwin’s article on abortion attacks straw men, employs red herrings, and ignores relevant evidence. In other words, “Abortion: A Woman's Private Choice” is very much in the spirit of Roe."

#### Chuck Colson essay on sex-selection abortion
Here is a good essay by Chuck Colson on sex-selection abortion and the Prenatal Discrimination Act. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/12/23/sex-selection-abortion-in-the-u-s-the-myth-of-choice/

Richard M.

#### Clarke Forsythe on Overruling Roe v. Wade
Here is a link to an excellent article by Clarke Forsythe (Senior Counsel, Americans United for Life) entitled "A Draft Opinion Overruling Roe v. Wade."

#### Clarke Forsythe on Overturning Roe v. Wade
Here is a link to a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed by Clarke Forsythe entitled "The Smart Way to Overturn Roe v. Wade." Forsythe focuses on a prudential strategy involving careful consideration of a variety of factors. He questions whether strict prohibitions on early abortions are the best vehicles for reversal.

#### Clarke Forsythe's Book on Prudence
Clarke Forsythe's book "Politics for the Greatest Good: The Case for Prudence in the Public Square" is worth reading. Here is the Amazon link.  http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Greatest-Good-Prudence-Public/dp/0830829229

Clarke makes the case for pursuing incremental change, an approach that he has helped to implement in his role at Americans United for Life.  A recent review of Clarke's book by Michael New is avaiable at this link. http://www.lifenews.com/nat6583.html.

Clarke presented a summary of the argument at UFL's 2005 conference at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Here is a link to his 2005 paper,  http://www.uffl.org/vol15/forsythe05.pdf, and a link to William Mathie's response.http://www.uffl.org/vol15/mathie-resp%20to%20forsythe05.pdf 

Richard M.

#### Clarke Forsythe's book on Roe v. Wade
Here is a link to my post on Mirror of Justice highlighting Clarke Forsythe's new book on Roe v. Wade. http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2013/08/clarke-forsythes-book-on-roe-v-wade.html Clarke has presented some of the work reflected in the book at University Faculty for Life conferences in recent years.

Earlier this year, Linda Greenhouse noted that hardly anyone reads Roe v. Wade anymore. Clake has certainly read Roe carefully and his analysis and critique are well worth careful consideration.

Richard M.

#### CMA Bootcamp 2013
Peter Colosi, UFL member and a professor of philosophy and moral theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, has been actively involved in the development of an ethics boot camp for medical students sponsored by the Catholic Medical Association. Here is a video highlighting the first one, held this summer.

#### Collett on Texas HB2
Teresa Collett wrote a full explanation of the legal situation in  the Texas case before the Supreme Court, Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole. "Texas Faces Abortion Showdown," in the National Catholic Register. 

#### Collett on the history of contraception laws
Here is a video of Teresa Collett's talk at Franciscan University Steubenville about the history of contraception laws. She spends significant time on the "right to privacy" discovered in the Griswold  v. Connecticut case that was used in Roe v. Wade. She also spends significant time discussing the HHS mandate, referring to the possible abortifacient effect of some drugs called contraceptives.

#### Colorado approves assisted suicide proposal
Here is a link to a lifesitenews story on Colorado's approval of Proposition 106, the "Colorado End of Life Options Act." Colorado is now the 6th state to allow physician assisted suicide.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/colorado-assisted-suicide-vote

#### Colorado personhood amendment loses
The Colorado personhood amendment lost by a large margin. Here is a link to the LifeNews story. http://www.lifenews.com/2010/11/03/state-5640/

Richard M.

#### Colosi on religion in the public square
UFL member Pete Colosi gave a talk about the importance of specifically religious discourse in public square debates about moral issues, including esp. the life issues. He focuses on the dialogue between Habermas, Pera, and Benedict XVI/Ratzinger. He points out, for instance, that Habermas promotes the idea that religious ideas should have equal footing in public discourse, according the same kind of respect by secularists that any other ideas are afforded. He thinks that society at large and secularists specifically can learn from specifically religious arguments for moral positions. Pera, an atheist, even holds that even if no one actually believes in the doctrines of Christianity, that civilization will only survive if we build our public life on the principles of Christian (Catholic) Social Teaching as articulated by believers. Ratzinger, although he agrees with Habermas and Pera, further argues, that there needs to be the Christian witness of persons who have a living faith in order for the teachings to having positive effect in the public life of society. Here is a video of the talk, "Ratzinger, Habermas and Pera on Public Reason and Religion."

#### Colosi writes homily hints
UFL member and moral theologian Peter Colosi has been asked by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Office for the New Evangelization to write “Homily Ideas” once a month from November, 2014 thru August 2015 in Preparation for the World Meeting of Families. The most recent “Homily Ideas” are posted each month on the official World Meeting of Families webpage. If you scroll down at this link you can see the most recent one “February 2015 Homily Ideas” and below that to all the previous ones. The “Homily Ideas” are related to the Catechesis that was prepared especially for this event, which has 10 chapters, thus each month relates in order to the chapters and the idea is for the priest to do one homily a month to prepare his parishioners for WMOF.

#### commentary on Myers v. Schneiderman
Here is a link to a good essay by Richard Doerflinger on Myers v. Schneiderman, the recent decision by the New York Court of Appeals rejecting a constitutional challenge to New York's ban on assisted suicide.

#### commentary on recent polls on abortion
There has been a lot of news coverage of late on polls that purport to show that most Americans support Roe v. Wade. Here and here are links to two pieces analyzing the polls. In reality, the polls indicate that most Americans do not support Roe v. Wade, which effectively legalized abortion on demand.

#### Commentary on the Arguments in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra
Here are two excellent articles on the March 20 oral arguments before the US Supreme Court in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra. This is the case involving the constitutionality of a California statute that imposes speech restrictions on crisis pregnancy centers. Here is a link to a National Review article by Mark Rienzi, and here is a link to a National Right to Life News story by Danielle White.   By all accounts, the arguments went well for the crisis pregnancy centers.

#### commentary on the Charlie Gard case
Here are links to two particularly insightful comments on the Charlie Gard case. Here is a very good piece by Melissa Moschella emphasizing the importance of parental rights. Here is an analysis of the ethical issues from the Anscombe Bioethics Centre.

#### Commentary on the death of Vincent Lambert
Here, here, and here are links to commentary on the death of Vincent Lambert. Lambert died 9 days after doctors stopped providing him food and water. Lambert's wife and a number of his siblings agreed with the doctors' recommendation to withdraw food and water. Lambert's parents and other siblings disagreed with the withdrawal. The case has been compared to the Terri Schindler-Schiavo case in Florida. Here is a link to a short article of mine on the Terri Schindler-Schiavo case.

Here is the conclusion of Wesley Smith's commentary--"Unless society collectively rejects the logic and moral premises of the 'quality of life' ethic, I see few impediments—other than the weak reed of emotional revulsion—to keep us from following a dark bioethical path."

#### commentary on the Time magazine cover story
The Time magazine cover story ("40 Years Ago, Abortion-Rights Activists Won an Epic Victory With Roe v. Wade. They've Been Losing Ever Since.") is generating a lot of commentary. Here are some samples of the commentary.

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/01/are-pro-abortionists-losing-the-battle/

http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2013/01/time-magazine-pro-life-movement-is-winning.html

Richard M.

 

#### comments on the life issues in John Updike's last book
Here, courtesy of Frank Zapatka, are some reflections on passages in John Updike's last book that address the life issues.

Richard M.

Here are Frank's comments--

The late John Updike (1931-2009) makes several casual references to life issues in five stories in his last book, My Father’s Tears and Other Stories (NY: Knopf, 2009). As brief and indirect as these references are, they seem to be indicative of current attitudes of many people about these matters.

In “Personal Archaeology,” there is a short passage which illustrates how casually abortion was taken for granted by some in the affluent unidentified neighborhood near Boston in which the story is set.  Craig Martin, the elderly central character, reminiscing about his past social life recalls that “cocktail parties were lethal melees, wherein lovers with a murmur cancelled assignations or agreed upon abortions” (p.22). Since Updike wrote as a realist, the matter of fact attitude toward abortion expressed in this passage, would be hard to dismiss as a fanciful fiction.

On a more life affirming note in the title story, an autobiographical persona Updike names Jim Werley recalls: “It was in Vermont, before the others arrived, that, by our retrospective calculations, we conceived our first child, unintentionally but with no regrets. This microscopic event deep within my bride became allied in my mind with the little rainbow low on the bathroom wall, our pet imp of refraction” (198).

In a somewhat similar vein in “Kinderszenen,” set presumably, in the 1930’s, the narrator in the voice of a child, Toby, describes his elderly next door neighbors, the Echelbergers, about whom his mother declares, “their tragedy is they never had any children.” The narrator, in an authorial voice, then informs the reader: “Toby is an only child and so is his mother, so he escaped into life by the narrowest of chances” (215). 

The two passages with their surprising turns of phrase (“microscopic event deep within my bride” and “escap[ing] into life”) would seem to constitute an appreciation, however oblique, of the “gift of life.”

Another life affirming short passage is found in “Spanish Prelude to a Second Marriage.” The narrator speaking of the male central character asks rhetorically “…what wife, really, would he ever know as well as he knew her [his mother]? “Even as a fetus he had been attuned to her moods and inner workings” (114). Some who identify themselves as “pro-choice,” of course,  would experience,  discomfort reading the previous sentence.

Benjamin Foster, the central character, in “Laughter of the Gods,” having asked his mother about his father’s and her past hears; “We both felt embarrassed at having been born. My parents had wanted a boy, and Daddy was the youngest of four, he always felt he was ‘one more mouth to feed’” (78). So much for welcoming the gift of new life.

The last of these oblique  references to  life issues, is made in the title story again. Jim Werley, the narrator/persona at his fifty-fifth high school reunion observes that “the sports stars and non-athletes alike  move about with the aid of pacemakers and plastic knees, retired and taking up space at an age when most of our fathers were considerately dead” (207). Some “qualitarians,” as Walker Percy might put it, would consider it inconsiderate for such physically challenged senior citizens to continue to live.  I would also suggest that lurking in such an attitude, which doubtless many consider harmless, would be the seed of what grows into what some consider a “duty to die.”

Later in the story, the narrator having told a memory challenged classmate that his (Jim Werley’s)  father had died many years earlier, thinks to himself that if he had still been living, he “would have been over a hundred and running up big bills in a nursing home (208).

Observations like “taking up space at an age when most of our fathers were considerately dead” and “would have been over a hundred and running up big bills in a nursing home” no doubt, would sit well with euthanasia and assisted suicide activists.

#### Commonweal "Can we talk about abortion?"
Rick Garnett over at Mirror of Justice blog has recommended Commonweal's new story, "Can we talk about abortion?' It will come as no surprise to Catholic readers of this blog that none of the three contributors to the article, Dennis O'Brien, Peter Steinfels, and Cathleen Caveny, give a robust defense of the view that innocent human life should be legally protected from conception.  Of the three Professor Caveny comes the closest, arguing what she describes as Professor Mary Ann Glendon's view, " “what is important is that the totality of abortion regulations—that is, all criminal, public health, and social welfare laws relating to abortion—be in proportion to the importance of the legal value of life, and that, as a whole, they work for the continuation of the pregnancy.”  There is little to quibble with in this statement, but I doubt Professor Glendon, a heroine to me and others in the prolife movement, intended that statement to foreclose or even delay inclusion of the unborn in our laws criminalizing the intentional taking of innocent human life.

#### Communication and Moral Complexity
SSRN lists a new article, Moral Conflict and Complexity: The Dynamics of Constructive Versus Destructive Discussions Over Polarizing Issues.  The authors' abstract, which you can access here, describes the contents as:

   
Moral conflicts, whether over abortion, the death penalty, or the ‘right’ approach to addressing terrorism, pose serious challenges to societies worldwide. They can quickly escalate and polarize communities, and then trap people in destructive spirals of negativity, intergroup contempt and even violence. But moral conflicts need not spiral out of control, and can be managed constructively. This article sheds light on why and how. One laboratory study investigating the underlying temporal dynamics of moral conflict is presented, based on the following idea: the basic dynamics of protracted, destructive conflicts are those which have lost the complexity and balance inherent to more constructive social relations, and have collapsed into overly-simplified, coherent, self-organizing patterns which become resistant to change. The study, an experiment which induced high and low levels of integrative complexity, found relations between higher levels of emotional, cognitive and behavioral complexity and openness and more constructive moral conflict dynamics, and lower-levels of these parameters with more destructive dynamics. Results provide strong support for the main hypotheses. Implications and next steps for this research are discussed.

#### Concerns about Hospice Continue
Preparing Americans for Death Lets Hospices Neglect End of Life reports that '[m]ore than four in 10 Americans now meet their end in hospice care, drawn by its promise of palliation and pain alleviation instead of extreme measures in their waning days. Medicare’s hospice rolls doubled to 1.1 million patients from 2000 to 2009, the last year of available data."  This has led to questionable business practices and poor patient care in some cases. "New federal hospice investigations rose 50 percent between 2008 and 2010, according to Gerald Roy, deputy inspector general at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicare spending."

High quality end-of-life care is crucial to combatting the campaign for physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia progress.

#### Conference at BYU on Assisted Suicide
Here's a link to an upcoming conference at BYU Law School. The conference is this Friday October 14, 2016. The conference, which will address "Assisted Suicide: Impacts Upon Families and Society," is sponsored by the Marriage & Family Law Research Project of BYU's law school and by the Ave Maria Law Review.  Selected papers will be published by the BYU Journal of Public Law and by the Ave Maria Law Review.

Participants include Lynn Wardle, Lee Strang, William Duncan, Margaret Somerville, James Ruble, Chris Kaczor, Angela Wentz Faulconer, Sean Murphy, and Richard Myers.

http://www.law2.byu.edu/site/marriage-family/Symposium-on-Assisted-Suicide

 

 

#### Conference: Healing of Human Enhancement?
"The Center for Cultural and Pastoral Research is pleased to announce a symposium on "Healing or Human Enhancement? The Future of Medicine" at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America on April 17-18, 2015....

"This symposium will discuss the profound questions surrounding the new possibilities not only for healing but also for so-called human "enhancement" by exploring the effect these have on our expectation of health and the practice of contemporary medicine."

For more details see: the Center for Cultural and Pastoral Research.

Hat tip: Siobhan Maloney

#### Congressional efforts to nullify DC assisted suicide law
Here is a story in the National Right to Life News about congressional efforts to nullify DC's assisted suicide law. The law was passed by the DC Council in December of 2016. Congress has the ability to nullify such laws, although the time-frame for so doing is short.

#### Congressional Resolution opposing Assisted Suicide
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about a Congressional resolution opposing the legalization of assisted suicide. The resolution states that "assisted suicide (sometimes referred to as death with dignity, end-of-life options, aid-in-dying, or similar phrases) puts everyone, including those most vulnerable, at risk of deadly harm and undermines the integrity of the health care system." Here is the conclusion: "That it is the sense of the Congress that the Federal Government should ensure that every person facing the end of their life has access to the best quality and comprehensive medical care, including palliative, in-home, or hospice care, tailored to their needs and that the Federal Government should not adopt or endorse policies or practices that support, encourage, or facilitate suicide or assisted suicide, whether by physicians or others."

#### Conley on Laudato Si and Integral Econology
UFL member Fr. John Conley, S.J. recently wrote a piece for America magazine called, "An Elusive Integral Ecology." Conley discusses the approach to the environment that influenced Pope Francis in writing his encyclical, Laudato Si, addressing the relationship between the economy and ecology and the non-economic components of the ecology that focuses on human relations.

#### Conscience Protection and the American Experiment
Professor Helen Alvare has posted a blog entry, Uphold Conscience Protection: Religious Freedom's Contribution to the American Experience and Threats to It, over at Public Discourse on the importance of conscience protections in a variety of settings. Many readers of this blog will recognize the professor from her former work as spokeswoman for Prolife Secretariat of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops or her current work as a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

Professor Alvare draws particular attention to the impact of the national healthcare reform act commonly known as Obamacare on the right of religiously-affiilated institutions.  The new mandate that contraception (including some abortifacient forms) be included in all employer-sponsored medical insurance plans poses a particular challenge to those who are unwilling to encourage use of or assist in paying for these medications and devices.

Of course, the issue of conscience protection is growing more complex for the prolife community.  There is uniform support for physicians' ability to decline to counsel about, refer for, or perform abortions.  However should a similar principle control at the other end of life?  

In places like Texas, state legislatures have passed laws allowing hospitals to decline providing life-sustaining care in certain circumstances when the hospital ethics committee concludes that such care would be "futile."  These laws typically come into play when there is a dispute between family members and the physcian about continuing care.  There has been some academic writing about this issue, but little consensus has emerged.  Scholars such as Thomas Mayo have defended the laws,  while criticis like Thaddeus Pope and Nora O'Callaghan have attacked them.  

It seems if the issue of conscience protection is understood primarily in terms of the moral autonomy of the doctor (or other healthcare professional), the same rules should apply to abortion and continuation or initiation of life-sustaining care.  However, if the issue is seen as dealing with the more contentious isssues of the morality of abortion and life-sustaining care, a coherent rule can be crafted to allow doctors to refuse to provide abortions, while obligating them to continue care for the terminally ill.  With the graying of American and the declining protection for religious freedom, we can certainly expect increasing attention to this issue.

#### Constitutional Tribunal in Chile Legalizes abortion
Here is a link to LifeNews story about the latest developments in Chile. Here is a comment from Clarke Forsythe of AUL:

"If there is a silver lining, it is the Court’s close vote today, 6-4, and that the Court merely allowed a legalization bill to go into effect.  Unlike the US Supreme Court’s decision Roe v. Wade, the Constitutional Tribunal did not create a constitutional right that would be immune from legislative correction. The Chile Chamber of Deputies and the Senate can repeal this legalization bill once they realize its negative impact on women, their children and the broader society.”

#### Constitutionality of banning off-label use of drugs
When the FDA approved the sale of RU-486 in this country, the agency used a little known process historically reserved for life-saving drugs. Lars Noah described the process in his article, A Miscarriage in the Drug Approval Process?: Mifepristone Embroils the FDA in Abortion Politics.  Since the approval of the drug, abortion providers have continued to experiment with the dosage and means of delivery, as well as use of the drug for aborting pregnancies beyond the 49 days LMP approved by the FDA.  Various states have attempted to require abortion providers to adhere to the protocol used to obtain FDA approval of the drug.  For example in Planned Parenthood of Cincinnati v. Strickland, the federal court upheld an Ohio law that required use of the FDA protocol.  A similar case is currently pending in South Dakota. 

A new law review article explores the constitutionality of prohibiting use of federally controlled drugs for non-approved purposes.  The author describes her thesis as: 

Critics of the Food & Drug Administration’s ban on off-label promotion often claim that it violates the First Amendment because it suppresses pharmaceutical manufacturers’ truthful speech about their legal - and beneficial - products. Characterizing the ban on off-label promotion in this way has more than rhetorical significance. Bans on truthful, non-misleading speech elicit special skepticism because of the belief that they “usually rest solely on the offensive assumption that the public will respond ‘irrationally’ to the truth.” The legislative history of the provisions of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act that underlie the ban on off-label promotion, however, reveals that Congress was concerned that physicians were responding rationally to false and misleading promotional claims. In this Article, I explore the doctrinal questions raised by conceiving of the ban on off-label promotion not as a ban on “truthful speech to physicians” but instead as a prophylaxis against false and misleading pharmaceutical promotion. I review the evidence that false and misleading claims were commonplace before the ban’s adoption and persist today, along with the enforcement challenges the FDA confronted at that time and would confront were the ban lifted, and conclude the government likely could develop the factual record necessary to establish that Congress’ rejection of an after-the-fact case-by-case approach to combating false and misleading prescription drug promotion is constitutional. 

Greenwood, Kate, The Ban on 'Off-Label' Pharmaceutical Promotion: Constitutionally Permissible Prophylaxis Against False or Misleading Commercial Speech? (July, 13 2011). American Journal of Law and Medicine, Vol. 37, p. 278, 2011. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1885076

#### Contraception, health, and desire
Andrew Haines makes basically the same point apropos of Tollefson's essay as I did the other day.

And here's just one more way of putting it that occurred to me this morning. I think it's safe to say that we have a natural desire for health (and even a natural inclination to health - I noticed recently that it is sometimes forgotten that 'desire' and 'inclination' aren't the same thing; all inclinations are desires, but not all desires are inclinations). But the fact that health is something that we desire doesn't mean that health requires the satisfaction of all our desires. I think that confusion about this has some very bad consequences, including consequences that obstruct pro-life efforts.

(Maybe I'll now stop flogging this issue for a while.)

#### Contradictions in the Catholic position on abortion?
I ran across this quote on the BBC web page about Catholicism:
Research and publications from the Alan Guttmacher Institute in America illustrate some contradictions in the Catholic stance against abortion.
The evidence is as follows:
Catholic women in the United States are as likely as women in the general population to have an abortion, and 29% more likely than Protestant women.

Catholic countries, even where abortion is illegal, have high levels of abortions: in Brazil, the estimated number of abortions ranges from 1 million to 2 million per year and in Peru, 5% of women of childbearing age have abortions each year, compared to 3% in the United States.

64% of US Catholics disapprove of the statement that abortion is morally wrong in every case (Survey of 493 Catholics, designed by Lake Research and Tarrance Group, for US News & World Report, Sept. 1995, margin of error ± 4.5%.)

72% of Catholics in Australia say decisions about abortion should be left to individual women and their doctors. (Survey for Family Planning Australia and Children by Choice, Melbourne, AGB McNair, Aug. 1996.)
In other words, the evidence that there are contractions in the Catholic stance on abortion is that a lot of Catholics disagree with the teaching.  I fail to see how that is evidence of contradiction in the teaching unless the teaching includes a statement that most Catholics agree with the teaching.

It's not. The teaching authority of the Church is not based on majority opinion.

#### Controversy in England about sex-selection abortions
Here are links to a couple of items about the controversy . Here's the introduction to a piece by Dave Andrusko. "The decision by the (British) Crown Prosecution Service not to prosecute two abortionists who allegedly offered to perform abortions on women who did not want a baby girl has stirred up a hornet’s nest of outrage."

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/09/controversy-follows-decision-not-to-prosecute-british-abortionists-accused-of-willingness-to-practice-sex-selection-abortion/

The 2d piece below is from Wesley Smith.

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/09/uk-refusing-to-punish-sex-selection-abortion/

Richard M.

#### Cooperation with Evil Flowchart
I just ran across this flow chart by David Rummelhoff that helps you decide whether an action you are thinking of taking is an illicit cooperation with evil. It is perhaps somewhat simplistic, as any such effort would be, but it does give one a path to follow in thinking about confusing situations. For those that aren't Catholic, you can start at "Will your action contribute to the principle agent's act?"

#### Cost of Unplanned Pregnancies and Laws on Fetal Pain
UFL member Michael New has some interesting observations on the Guttmacher Institute's new report estimating the cost of unplanned pregnancies here and a brief comment on the NYT report regarding the passage of laws related to fetal pain here.

#### Costs of Unplanned Pregnancies
The Brookings Institute has published a new study, The High Cost of Unintended Pregnancy.  The abstract describes the conclusion of the study:

The high incidence of unintended pregnancy imposes costs on American society that range from increased rates of crime and welfare participation to reduced levels of high-school completion and labor-force participation. We focus on one of the most policy-relevant aspects of this problem by estimating the amount spent by the government each year on medical care that is directly associated with unintended pregnancies. We find that taxpayers spend about $12 billion annually on publicly financed medical care for women who experience unintended pregnancies and on infants who were conceived unintentionally. After accounting for the fact that some of these pregnancies are merely mistimed while others are altogether unwanted, we also estimate that taxpayers would save about half of this amount if all unintended pregnancies could be prevented. With state and federal budgets being scoured for potential savings—and in light of the mounting evidence showing that there are a number of cost-effective policy options for reducing unintended pregnancies—our results suggest that policymakers should increase their investments in proven pregnancy-prevention strategies. 

The Brookings Institute has staked out a strong position in favor of public funding for pregnancy prevention, often relying upon the argument that such funding will reduce abortions.  See Family Planning Subsidies: Much Ado About Something.  As noted in an earlier blog entry, the evidence supporting this claim is mixed at best.  

For prolifers, the key question in this debate is how "pregancy-prevention" is defined.  Does it include abortifacient methods that are intended to prevent implantation after the sperm and the egg unite to create a separate and distinctive human being?  

Another important question is whether strong public emphasis on the desirability of such programs reinforces the idea that if contraception fails, women are justified in aborting their pregnancies since they attempted to avoid conception.  Studies show that women obtaining abortions often have used contraception, but have discontinued its use or not adhered to the directions for effective use.  See studies cited in here and in Kristin Luker's book, Taking Chances: Abortion and the Decision Not to Contracept.

#### Council of Europe adopts Resolution against Euthanasia
Courtesy of LifeNews.com, here is an analysis by Gregor Puppinck of the resolution adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/01/26/victory-council-of-europe-adopts-resolution-against-euthanasia/?pr=1

The Resolution includes this strong statement:“Euthanasia, in the sense of the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit, must always be prohibited.”

Richard M.

#### Council of Europe and sex-selection abortion
Here is a link to an article about a resolution that will go before the Council of Europe next month.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8754811/Parents-could-be-barred-from-knowing-the-sex-of-their-unborn-baby-by-European-ruling.html

According to the resolution, hospitals would be barred from disclosing to pregnant mothers the sex of their unborn baby. The draft resolution, which was recently passed by the Council's equal opportunities committee, is motivated by the increasing concern about sex-selection abortions and the resulting gender imbalance in certain countries in Europe (e.g., Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia). You can read the resolution on the Council's website here.

Richard M.

 

 

#### court decision on embryonic stem cell research
Here is the LifeNews story on last week's decision by a federal court of appeals allowing the funding of embryonic stem cell research. See http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/29/court-obama-can-force-taxpayers-to-fund-embryonic-research/ Here is a story with commentary from pro-life advocates. See http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/29/pro-life-advocates-respond-to-courts-stem-cell-decision/

Richard M.

#### Court declines to review Alabama's ban on dismemberment abortions
The US Supreme Court today declined to review a lower court ruling that had invalidated Alabama's ban on dismemberment abortions. Justice Thomas concurred in the ruling but noted--

"This case serves as a stark reminder that our abortion jurisprudence has spiraled out of control. Earlier this Term, we were confronted with lower court decisions requiring States to allow abortions based solely on the race, sex, or disability of the child. Today, we are confronted with decisions requiring States to allow abortion via live dismemberment. None of these decisions is supported by the text of the Constitution. Although this case does not present the opportunity to address our demonstrably erroneous 'undue burden' standard, we cannot continue blinking the reality if what this Court has wrought."

#### COVID Stories: Decisions to Treat and the Quality of Life"
Here is a link to a good essay by RJ Snell on the Michael Hickson case. Here is a key paragraph from the essay:

"Behind the push for euthanasia, assisted suicide, “mercy killings,” and the refusal to treat Michael Hickson—refusing even to provide him hydration!—is a very basic, but utterly damning, philosophical mistake. Namely, no one is more or less human than anyone else, even if they cannot walk or speak—for speaking and walking are not the substance of humanity."

#### Criminal penalties for women who self-abort?
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about a British women who was sentenced for aborting her own child in the last week of pregnancy. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2012/09/british-woman-sentenced-to-eight-years-for-aborting-her-child-in-last-week-of-pregnancy/

In the US, the Ninth Circuit (on September 11, 2012) held unconstitutional an Idaho law prohibiting self-abortion. Here is commentary from Walter Weber. Here is his concluding paragraph. "The pro-life movement looks out for the interests of both expectant mothers and their babies, while the pro-abortion movement drives a wedge between the two. Both sides should agree, however, that it is in no one’s interest to have women engaging in destructive self-help medicine, essentially do-it-yourself back alley abortions. The Ninth Circuit unfortunately has laid the groundwork for invention of a constitutional right to self-abort. And sad to say, there are those seem to think this would be a good thing."    http://www.lifenews.com/2012/09/12/court-women-have-the-right-to-engage-in-self-abortion-sort-of/

Richard M.

#### crisis pregnancy free speech case heads to US Supreme Court
Here is a link to a press release from ADF about its effort to obtain Supreme Court review of a Ninth Circuit decision upholding a California law that forces pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to promote abortion. Courts around the country are divided on the constitutional issues presented and there is a strong likelihood that the Court will agree to review the Ninth Circuit decision.

ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman stated: “It’s unthinkable for the government to force anyone to provide free advertising for the abortion industry. This is especially true of pregnancy care centers, which exist to care for women who want to have their babies. ...The state shouldn’t have the power to punish anyone for being pro-life. Instead, it should protect freedom of speech and freedom from coerced speech. The abortion industry already makes millions on abortion and from taxpayer funding; we are asking the Supreme Court to ensure that they won’t be allowed to force unwilling people to promote their business.”

 

 

#### dangerous developments with regard to the Swiss law on assisted suicide
Here is a link to a good post by Wesley Smith noting that the Swiss law allowing assisted suicide is being extended to an increasingly larger number of "target groups." Here's the opening of the post: "Once a society accepts the fundamental premises of assisted suicide–e.g., radical individualism and killing as an acceptable answer to suffering–there really are no brakes.  Switzerland more than aptly demonstrates the thesis."

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/07/09/swiss-proves-no-brakes-assisted-suicide/

Richard M.

#### Dave Andrusko on Down syndrome abortion bans
Here is a good story by Dave Andrusko on laws banning Down syndrome abortions. Andrusko highlights the changing legal landscape and also mentions the importance of Justice Thomas's opinion in the Box case in which Thomas empathized that such bans “promote a State’s compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics.”

#### Dave Andrusko on the Zeigler & Tsai analysis of pro-life strategy
Here is a good piece by Dave Andrusko in the National Right to Life News. Andrusko makes some good comments about a long essay by Mary Zeigler and Robert Tsai in Politico. That long essay  ("How the Anti-Abortion Movement Used the Progressive Playbook to Chip Away at Roe v. Wade,”) describes how “The tactics that advanced civil rights and gay rights have been put to work against abortion.” Zeigler and Tsai discuss how the pro-life movement has used an incremental strategy to undermine Roe and Casey; this strategy has brought us to the potential  overruling of Roe and Casey.

The Andrusko piece and the Zeigler/Tsai essay are both worth reading.

#### David Lejeune's Open Letter to Ruth Marcus on Abortion and Down syndrome
Here is a link to David Lejeune's open letter to Ruth Marcus. On March 9, 2018, Marcus published an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled "I would've aborted a fetus with Down syndrome. Women need that right." Lejeune's open letter responds to her op-ed.

David Lejeune, who is the president of the Jerome Lejeune Foundation USA, writes: "you [Marcus] claim that you would have terminated your pregnancies had the testing for each child come back positive for Down syndrome. While you are free to voice your personal opinion, even an ill-considered one, I am compelled to publically refute the statements you made regarding aborting children with Down syndrome. Lives are at stake. If your advice were accepted by others, the lives of innocent children would be eliminated and families would be deprived of loving, beautiful human beings who contribute immensely to human flourishing."

Lejeune's open letter closes with this appeal: "I stand with my brothers and sisters with Down syndrome and ask you to reconsider your beliefs and the dangerous effect your words may have on vulnerable children in the United States and beyond."

 

#### David Mall, RIP
The pro-life movement lost a great friend with the passing of David Mall on January 24, 2019 at the age of 83. Here is a link to his obituary; at that link, there is a tribute wall that includes remembrances from Jeff Koloze, Richard Stith, and others.  Here is a link to a piece by Dave Andrusko in the National Right to Life News.

David was a tireless advocate for life. He was an enthusiastic participant and important contributor to the annual meetings of University Faculty for Life. He will be sorely missed.

His funeral Mass will be celebrated today in Iowa on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. Please keep David and his family in your prayers.

#### DC Circuit allows undocumented teen to obtain an abortion
Here is a link to a story in the Wall Street Journal on the latest developments in this case. Here is a link to the opinion, which includes Judge Kavanaugh's dissent claiming that the court's decision "represents a radical extension of the Supreme Court's abortion jurisprudence."

Update: Here is a link to a LifeNews story reporting that the teen did in fact obtain an abortion soon after the DC Circuit's decision.

#### DC Circuit enjoins Administration policy on abortions for undocumented minors
Here is a link to a LifeNews story about the June 14, 2019 decision from a divided panel of the United State Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The court found that the policy of the Office of Refugee Resettlement to prevent shelters from facilitating abortions for "unaccompanied alien children" was likely unconstitutional.  Judge Silberman dissented. Silberman thought that the majority erred in affirming the lower court's ruling to certify the suit as a class action and in finding that the case was not moot. Silberman also dissented on the merits. Silberman agreed with then-Judge Kavanaugh's earlier opinion in the case that the Administration's policy did not create an undue burden on the right to an abortion.

#### DC City Council approves assisted suicide bill
Here are links to two articles discussing today's vote by the DC City Council. The Council still must vote on the law in 2 weeks, and so this isn't settled yet.

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2016/11/d-c-council-votes-to-legalize-physician-assisted-suicide-mayor-urged-to-veto-b21-38/#.WBkSVPzrvIU

http://dailysignal.com/2016/11/01/dc-city-council-votes-to-allow-physician-assisted-suicide-thatll-change-us-all-for-the-worse/

#### DC Council approves "Death with Dignity Act"
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about the latest developments. The DC Council has approved an assisted suicide bill.

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2016/11/d-c-council-approves-assisted-suicide-bill/#.WC3GtvzrvIU

#### DC law legalizing assisted suicide is now in effect
Here is a story from LifeNews.com about recent developments in Washington, D.C. The DC City Council passed the law legalizing assisted suicide in 2016. Congress had an opportunity to prevent the law from going into effect but failed to do so. DC joins Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California, and Colorado as jurisdictions where laws explicitly authorize assisted suicide; the same situation exists in Montana through a judicial decision.

#### DC Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
Here is a story on the most recent local effort to ban abortions after 20 weeks to avoid fetal pain. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2012/05/pain-capable-unborn-children-and-the-abcs-of-abortion/

Teresa Collett (who is the president of University Faculty for Life and has been a leader in this fight) is featured prominently in the National Right to Life News article.

Richard M.

#### debate on the constitutionality of fetal pain legislation
See you the links below for discussion of the constitutionality of legislation banning abortion to prevent fetal pain. Paul Linton recently published an article in the Human Life Review, http://www.humanlifereview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=125:the-problem-of-pain-legislation&catid=4:blog , arguing that laws such as Nebraska's recently passed statute are misguided because such laws have little chance of being upheld in the courts. Mary Balch has defended these laws, in part due to the educational value of this sort of legislation. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/02/08/bills-related-to-abortion-fetal-pain-are-necessary/ Paul Linton has then responded to Balch's piece. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/02/09/pro-life-groups-should-note-abortion-fetal-pain-legal-issues/

Richard M.

#### Deception and pro-life work
Monica Migliorino Miller writes in Crisis, "Were Planned Parenthood Videos Produced Unethically," a defense of David Daleiden against the accusation that the deception he and his team engaged in to gain the videos of Planned Parentood was immoral because it was lying, which is always wrong.

#### Decline in abortion rate is great pro-life educational opportunity
We must pick up and use the fact that the abortion rate is declining, rather than get sidetracked into a fight about its immediate causes and consequences. Even if it were true (which I doubt) that the greater availability of contraceptives (rather than pro-life educational and law reform efforts) is the primary cause of this decline, and the greater use of contraceptives (rather than more babies being born) is its primary consequence, this trend would be extremely advantagous for the pro-life movement.
As Rachel MacNair has pointed out in her written works, especially in Achieving Peace in the Abortion War (2009),  the trend downward in abortions helps us in at least two ways:

First (whatever may be the cause of the decline in the abortion rate), the less important abortion becomes in peoples' lives, the easier it will be to restrict it. The so-called "reliance interest" identified in Casey diminishes.

Second, if abortions decline, we can use that in a narrative that says that the American people are rejecting abortion. This narrative is useful in reaching those who want to jump on bandwagons (or "be on the right side of history"). But also, and perhaps more importantly, it can help us reach patriotic Americans (i.e., the overwhelming majority of Americans). As long as we are heard to be saying in effect "America is engaging in a holocaust in some ways worse than that of the Nazis", good and loyal Americans will turn away, will refuse to hear a message so disturbing -- or if they do hear and believe it, they may just lose heart. But with this decline, we can now say instead "Some American judges and politicians may still be pro-abortion, but the American people are realizing how tragic abortion is, and they are continuing to turn away from it." Both narratives are true, in my judgment, but why not use the one that has the greater power to change minds and hearts? Non-violence builds on hope, not on despair.

#### Defunding the abortion group Planned Parenthood
The feminist group The Susan B. Anthony List invites persons interested in defunding Planned Parenthood to attend its teleconference and web simulcast Monday 3-7-11, 9 PM EST.  Registration is available through www.ExposePlannedParenthood.com.

#### Dehumanization of People
In Demoting Humans Zenit talks with John Haas about the growning trend in bioethics to treat human beings as material to use for scientific experiments and the role of the Catholic Church in establishing bioethics as an area of study and concern.

#### Democrats and euthanasia
A colleague has asked for information about the Democratic Party’s support of euthanasia.  While my colleague knows that the party supports the current US law on abortion (legal throughout the nine months of pregnancy for any reason whatsoever), he is uncertain that the party’s support for what has come to be known as “death panels” in Obamacare would lead to euthanasia.  I have already recommended that he read Ramesh Ponnuru’s The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life  (http://www.amazon.com/Party-Death-Democrats-Courts-Disregard/dp/1596980044).  Colleagues who find specific primary materials related to this question can respond to this post or reply privately to my email of record.

#### Devastating Critique of Kansas Supreme Court decision on abortion
Here is a link to a very good essay by Adam MacLeod critiquing the recent decision of the Kansas Supreme Court that found a natural right to abortion. Here is a paragraph from the essay--

"This essay considers the humorous incompetence of the opinion, not for amusement but to learn an important lesson. American constitutions contain terms of art taken from common law, including terms that refer to peculiarly Anglo-American doctrines of natural rights. If we want judges to understand and apply those terms correctly, then we must recover that tradition. Otherwise, judges will make things up, as they did in Kansas. "

#### Developments in Australia on euthanasia
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has indicated that there will be a conscience vote on a proposal to legalize euthanasia. Gillard, though, is conflicted on the issue and has voiced concerns about whether adequate safeguards can be crafted. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillard-conflicted-on-euthanasia-but-open-to-debating-the-issue/story-fn59niix-1225929500111 Gillard's concerns were addressed by Jan Bernheim, a Belgian professor and right to die advocate who think s the euthanasia law in Belgium is working well.  http://www.theage.com.au/national/pm-rebuffed-on-euthanasia-stand-20101003-162rc.html

Here is Wesley Smith's respone. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/10/04/australian-pm-right-belgium-proves-no-way-to-create-a-safe-euthanasia-system/

Richard M.

#### developments in the Charlie Gard case
Here are a couple of news items about developments in the Charlie Gard case. Here is a story discussing a recent medical exam that was conducted in preparation for a new hearing in the case.  Here is a story discussing Charlie's parents' objection that the lawyer appointed to represent Charlie is a supporter of assisted suicide. Here is a very good piece by William McGurn.

Dr. Mary Lemmons, UFL President, asks the following questions about the case:

"After two British courts and the European Court of Human Rights have denied the right of Charlie Gard’s parents to pursue potentially life enhancing treatment for their son, they now wait for a fourth decision. Why have the British made their pursuit of potentially life-enhancing treatment for Charlie so difficult? Could it be that British practitioners have become so accustomed to total control over their patients that they resent anyone who dares to challenge their judgments?"

 

 

#### Digoxin, Feticide, and Abortion: A Mockery of Morality
The February 2012 issue of Contraception, The Official Journal of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals and the Society of Family Planning, has a research study that investigated the safety of using digoxin for fetal demise before second-trimester abortion by dilation and evacuation (D&E). Digoxin is a powerful heart medication that when injected into the fetus will ensure fetal demise. The reason that digoxin is used is to make sure that the abortionist does not have to deal with a live fetus/baby in case for some reason the fetus/baby should happen to spontaneously abort. This method was recommended by lawyers at hospitals that offer second trimester abortions. The lawyers were recommending this procedure to deal with the mandate of the 2007 Supreme Court decision of Gonzales v. Carhart that upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003.
However, the study by researchers from Planned Parenthood, the University of Illinois, and the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, found that the procedures resulted in significantly more infections, hospital admissions, and spontaneous abortions compared to those pregnant women who just received the non-digoxin feticide. They recommend further studies, but also suggested that it would be safer for the pregnant woman to not use the digoxin method.
A commentary article accompanying the study mentioned that from a moral standpoint that the digoxin method violates the principles of patient beneficence, autonomy, and justice. They also suggested ways of getting around the partial birth abortion act by documenting that the abortionist did not “intend” to have a live birth and having the abortionist cut the umbilical cord while the baby is still in the womb. This display of supposed morality seems to be a charade and a sense that they can play the game of morality for their own benefit and feelings that they are doing the good. There is no sense that abortion at that stage of human development and having to dismember, cut umbilical cords, and/or inject digoxin into a beating heart is not somehow abhorrent and a mockery of the healing professions.

#### disability rights group opposes assisted suicide law in Massachusetts
Here is a link to a post by Wesley Smith discussing the efforts of disability rights organizations to oppose the assisted suicide initiative in Massachusetts. Smith notes: "Media like to portray assisted suicide opponents as primarily religious or pro life.  But the facts don’t fit that supposed story.  Disability rights advocates–who are mostly politically liberal and secular in outlook–are [an] essential part of the anti-assisted suicide coalition, as are medical, nursing, and hospice professionals, few of which oppose abortion."

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/03/06/second-thoughts-disability-rights-group-opposes-assisted-suicide-in-ma/

Richard M.

#### Divided Seventh Circuit Affirms Ruling Enjoining Indiana's Parental Notice Law
Here is a link to a divided opinion of the Seventh Circuit affirming a lower court ruling enjoining an Indiana law requiring parental notice before a minor may obtain an abortion. In contrast to the views of several federal circuits, the majority did not follow Chief Justice Robert's concurrence in the June Medical case. Judge Kanne's dissent explains why the majority's approach is inconsistent with the views of other federal courts.

Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the decision.

#### DNR's, dementia, and assisted suicide
The Chicago Tribune has an opinion piece today entitled Do not resusictate . . . do not feel remorse.  The author describes her mother's last year of life, struggling with old age and dementia.  The mother ultimately dies at home after the family refused to allow a feeding tube.  The author also briefly considers how she would have responded to a request by her mother for assisted suicide if that had been legally available.

In 2009 the US Conference of Catholic Bishops approved the 5th edition of Ethical and Religious Directives to Catholic Hospitals and provided more explicit guidance of the omission of artificial nutrition and hydration in paragraph 58.

#### Do tele-med abortions increase or decrease the rate of complications?
Reproductive Research Audit has published a critical analysis of a study published in the American Journal of Public Health that claims that tele-med (webcam) administration of chemical abortions reduces the likelihood of complications. RRA's analysis finds flaws in the original study and attempts to show in their own report that the data actually shows the opposite.

#### Do we need more oversight of hospice care?
In The Truth Behind the Hospice Numbers J. Donald Schumacher, president and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, responds to criticisms of poor oversight and rising hospice payments by government.

#### Doctor's Conscience Rights in 14th Amendment
The Supreme Court has made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to argue that health care workers have a Free Exercise right under the First Amendment to refuse to participate in abortions.  With growing governmental powers over health care, many are concerned that legislative conscience protections for health care workers may not be sufficient to protect pro-life doctors and nurses.

Would it be constitutionally permissible for the government to require health care workers to perform abortions, perhaps to alleviate an alleged shortage of abortion services?

I came across an abstract of a recent article by Mark Rienzi   on SSRN arguing that there are many more sound arguments for constitutionally protected conscience rights for doctors under the 14th amendment than are available under the 1st amendment. 

This is an idea that has been tossed around among pro-life lawyers for some time now.  The irony is, of course, that such arguments depend at least in part upon cases such as Planned Parenthood v. Casey to support a claimed constitutional right to refuse to participate in abortion.  

Just as a pregnant woman has a 14th amendment right to "define for herself" and a meaning of life that includes recourse to abortion, so also health care workers have a concommitant constitutional right to define their meaning of life to exclude any participation in abortion.  

And so the wheel turns...

#### Does emergency contraception cause abortion?
Recently journalist Linda Greenhouse's criticized for-profit companies seeking to be exempt from the HHS contraceptive mandate in a guest opinion column in the New York Times called "Doesn't East, Doesn't Pray and Doesn't Love." In response, Donna Harrison, MD, Executive Director of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, writes "Emergency Contraception Can Cause Abortion" on the Public Discourse page of the Witherspoon Institute.

Harrison especially looks at the effects of the use of the "contraceptive" Ella, and of hormonal IUD's such as Mirena.  In her conclusion, she says:
Claims that the levonorgestrel IUD and Ella only work by preventing fertilization cannot be supported in the medical literature. On the contrary, studies show that these FDA-approved hormonal contraceptives can work by multiple mechanisms of action, both pre- and post-fertilization, including sometimes by aborting an already implanted embryo.

 

#### Does Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage Cause An Increase in Abortions
There is evidence that legalization of same-sex marriage is associated with higher rates, ratios and rankings of abortion in American States.  That information was compiled and presented to the Supreme Court of the United States in an amicus brief filed in Obergefell v. Hodges by more than 100 scholars of marriage in support of the states whose gender-integrative marriage laws were being challenged.  Attorney Gene Schaerr of Washington, D.C. filed that brief in which he noted that in 2011, states in which same-sex marriage had been legalized “averaged 50.4%  more abortions per 1,000 women, and 71.4% more abortions per 1,000 births” than states in which same-sex marriage was not allowed.  Id. at 19a.  He predicted that a nationwide rule mandating same-sex marriage (as the Supreme Court subsequently ordered in its Obergefell decision a month ago) would result in increased abortions and increased nonmarital births in the USA.

Schaerr wrote: “The logic is simple and intuitive: Fewer opposite-sex marriages means more unmarried women, which in turn means fewer children born, more children born to unmarried mothers, and more children abortion.”

Clearly there is some causal association, some connecting behavioral correlation between same-sex marriage and abortion.  What that connection is, how it works, and why, are matters of speculation at this point in time. However, it would not be surprising to identify some conceptual link between the moral foundations of same-sex marriage and the moral foundations of abortion-on-demand.

That data should give pro-life Americans grave cause for concern about the recent Supreme Court Obergefell ruling that mandated that all American states must allow same-sex couples to “marry.”  One thing that ruling means for certain is that there will be more same-sex marriages in the United States.  And if the past correlation continues, that means that there will be more abortions in the USA as well.

That is a foreboding prediction.  Rates, ratios and numbers of abortions in the USA have been falling steadily for more than three decades.  Since about 1980, abortions have been in free-fall in the United States.  See Chuck Donovan, Why the Abortion Rate is Declining, The Daily Signal (1 Sept. 2014), available at at http://dailysignal.com/2014/09/01/abortion-rate-declining/ (1 Sept. 2014).

The correlation between same-sex marriage and abortion suggests that now that same-sex marriage has been declared a constitutionally-protected right in the United States, we can expect to see more same-sex marriages.  Correspondingly, as past data suggests that abortions and same-sex marriages are associated, we also can expect to see an increase in the numbers, rates and ratios of abortions.  That would mean that after more than thirty years, the era of the steady decline of abortion will abruptly end.

Perhaps other factors will disrupt the historic connection between same-sex marriages and abortions.  However, if nothing else, these sobering data must cause pro-life citizens and scholars to recognize that the abortion culture is impacted by many variables and that developments in areas of human behavior that we may not at first associate with abortion (such as same-sex marriage) may have profound, detrimental impacts upon the culture of life and may further stimulate and advance the culture of death and abortion.

by Lynn D. Wardle, 6 July 2015

#### Does The Adoption Of Genderless Marriage Lead To More Abortions?
Does The Adoption Of Genderless Marriage Lead To More Abortions?

 

Among the six European nations that first allowed same-sex marriage—either overtly or indirectly—there appears to have been a substantial increase in abortion.  Those six nations are listed in the following chart, which shows the years in which each nation either redefined marriage in genderless terms or adopted a genderless civil union or registered partnership regime that offered virtually all the incidents of marriage, including full adoption rights, to same-sex couples:[1]

 

Comparison of National Abortion Percentages and Ratios

In European Union Nations Adopting Same-Sex Marriage (Or Practical Equivalents) Before 2006[2]

 

Nation
Year adopted SSM or equivalent
Abortion % in prior year 
Abortion % 

2011
Percent change
Abortion ratio in prior year
Abortion ratio

2011
Percent change

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 Norway
1993 (2009)[3]
20.1
20.3
1.0%
252.1
254.8
1.1%

 Sweden
1995 (2009)
22.4
25.2
12.5%
287.9
333.7
15.9%

 Iceland
1996 (2010)
15.9
17.8
11.9%
188.6
215.7
14.4%

 Netherlands
2001
11.6
13.4
15.5%
131.7
154.5
17.3%

 Belgium
2003
12.4
13.4
8.0%
133.0
154.8
16.4%

 Spain
2005
15.8
18.8
19.0%
187.6
231.2
24.2%

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

    Average

Increases
 
 
 
11.3%
 
 
16.5%

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

As the chart shows, since 2000 all but one of these six nations saw a substantial increase in both the abortion percentage—defined as the percentage of pregnancies ending in abortion—and the abortion ratio—the number of abortions per 1000 live births.  Spain’s progression is especially remarkable:  Over the 2004-2011 period, it saw an increase of 19 percent in its abortion percentage and 24.2 percent in its abortion ratio.  The average change in the abortion percentage for the entire group was 11.3 percent, while the average change in the abortion ratio was 17.9 percent.

 

These changes, moreover, stand in sharp contrast to overall trends in the developed world.  According to a 2012 joint study by the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization, overall abortion rates (the number of abortions per 1000 women of child-bearing age) in the developed world have consistently declined since 1995 (up to 2008, the last year analyzed by the study).[4]  Specifically, in developed countries other than Eastern Europe (where abortion rates have been higher), between 1995 and 2008 the average abortion rate declined by about 15 percent.  Abortion percentages and ratios have seen a similar decline.[5]

 

So why might the adoption of a genderless marriage regime lead to more abortions?  There are at least two plausible reasons.

 

First, as a number of commentators have noted, the adoption of genderless marriage necessarily changes the public meaning or perception of marriage from an institution principally concerned with procreation and children to one that is principally concerned with the well-being of adults.[6]  In most societies, marriage is the only social institution largely dedicated to children, and its high status stands as a constant reminder to society that the interests of children should take precedence over the interests of adults.  But a society that redefines marriage to accommodate the romantic interests of a small subset of the adult population necessarily conveys to its members that adult interests can appropriately trump the interests of children.  That message will tend to legitimize decisions by non-married and married citizens to place their own interests above the interests of their children – including their unborn children.  And that, in turn, will tend to increase the abortion rate.

 

Second, as other commentators have noted, the adoption of a genderless marriage regime sends another, powerful message to men—especially young men—who self-identify as heterosexual.  That regime creates a legal structure in which any two people of the same sex—generally two women—can easily form a family, conceive children (using artificial reproductive technology), parent them, and raise them to adulthood—all without (except for an initial sperm donation) any male involvement.  The adoption of that regime thus says to young heterosexual men, “Aside from access to your DNA, we as a society no longer really need you in order to form families and effectively parent the resulting children.”[7]  Some young heterosexual men will inevitably take that message to heart and, as a result, lose interest in marriage—which will tend to produce declining marriage rates.  But because these young men will not lose their ordinary interest in sex, the end result is likely to be a relative increase in the number of unmarried but pregnant women.  And because unmarried pregnant women are much more likely than married pregnant women to obtain abortions,[8] a relative increase in the former will naturally lead to higher abortion rates.

 

Statistics for the six European nations discussed above, moreover, appear to confirm (with one exception) a reasonably strong correlation between the adoption of genderless marriage and declining marriage rates:

Comparison of National Marriage Rates

In European Union Nations Adopting Same-Sex Marriage (Or Practical Equivalents) Before 2006[9]

                        

Nation
Year adopted SSM or equivalent
Marriage rate in prior year[10]
Marriage rate, 2010 
Percent change

 
 
 
 
 

 Norway
1993 (2009)
5.3
5.2
-2.0%

 Sweden
1995 (2009)
3.6
5.1
+42.0%

 Iceland
1996 (2010)
5.6
5.2[11]
-7.1%

 Netherlands
2001
5.0
4.4
-12.0%

 Belgium
2003
3.9
4.1
+5.1%

 Spain
2005
5.1
3.8
-25.5%

 
 
 
 
 

 

 
Although marriage rates have generally declined in Europe during this period—by around 6 percent[12]--the declines in three of these nations, the Netherlands at 12%, Spain at 25.5% and Iceland at 7.1%, were significantly in excess of the overall European decline.  And that is consistent with the common-sense prediction that the adoption of genderless marriage leads some percentage of the heterosexual male population to lose interest in marriage altogether.

 

The data for two more of these countries—Norway, which saw a small decline than the European average, and Belgium, which saw a slight increase—are also consistent with this prediction.  That is because, all else being equal, the advent of officially sanctioned same-sex marriage could be expected to cause a small but temporary increase in overall marriage rates because of pent-up demand for marriage by same-sex couples.  If that expectation is correct—as same-sex marriage advocates themselves claim—then it appears that marriages involving heterosexual men were also probably declining in these three nations at a faster clip than the overall decline in European marriage rates.[13]

 

Thus, marriage rates among heterosexuals appear to have declined more rapidly than one would expect in five of the six European nations that were “early movers” in enacting same-sex marriage or its functional equivalent.  That strong correlation is unlikely to be a mere coincidence.

 

In sum, there are at least two plausible pathways by which the adoption of a genderless marriage regime would lead to more abortions.  And available statistics suggest that one or both of those pathways may well have led to increased abortion rates in the five European nations that first embraced that regime.

 

 

 

[1] Denmark adopted a registered partnership arrangement for same-sex couples in 1989.  But as to adoption and other significant matters, and unlike the arrangements in Norway and Sweden, Denmark’s registered partnership arrangement did not give same-sex couples the same rights as married couples.

[2] Source:  Wm. Robert Johnston, Abortion Statistics and Other Data, last updated 14 April 2014, www.johnstonsarchive.net.

[3] For Norway, Sweden and Iceland, the year in parentheses is the year in which marriage was formally redefined in genderless terms, after having been effectively redefined previously because of a marriage-equivalent civil union or registered partnership regime.

[4] See Guttmacher Institute, “Facts on Induced Abortion Worldwide,” January 2012, available at www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_IAW.html.

[5] This paper focuses on abortion percentages and ratios because more recent data are available for those measures than for abortion rates.  See Johnston, supra.  However, in years for which abortion rates are available, those rates closely follow changes in abortion percentages and ratios. See id.

[6] See, e.g., Girgis, Anderson, & George, What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense, at 23-28 (2012).

[7] See, e.g., [cite Hawkins-Carroll article or amicus brief]

[8] See, e.g., National Center for Health Statistics, Data Brief No. 136 (December 2013), available at www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db136.pdf (in the U.S., the abortion rate for unmarried women is “almost five times higher than for married women”).

[9] Sources:  OECD Statistics on marriage rates for 2010 in OECD nations are available at www.oecd.org/statistics; other marriage rates available from Eurostat at epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm.

[10] The earliest year for which data are consistently available is 1998, so that year is used for nations that adopted same-sex-marriage-equivalent regimes before then.

[11] Iceland’s marriage rate does not appear in the OECD data.  The most recent year for which Iceland’s marriage rate is available from Eurostat is 2008, and that is the rate used here.

[12] See id. (showing average decline for all 27 EU nations from 5.18 in 2000 to 4.87 in 2007, or approximately 6 percent over that period).

[13] Some other exogenous factor or combination of factors must explain the dramatic increase in the marriage rate in Sweden during this period.

Posted 16 June 2014 by Lynn D. Wardle

#### DOJ Files Amicus Brief in Support of Ohio Law Prohibiting Abortions due to a Diagnosis of Down Syndrome
Here is a link to a press release from the US Department of Justice describing an amicus brief the DOJ filed earlier this week. The brief, filed with he US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, supports the constitutionality of Ohio's law banning abortions due to a diagnosis of Down Syndrome.

#### Down Syndrome Discrimination by Abortion Prohibition Act
In late October 2019, US Senator Jim Inhofe introduced the Down Syndrome Discrimination by Abortion Prohibition Act. The Act would prohibit abortion based on an unborn child having Down Syndrome. (Here is a link to press release from Senator Inhofe.)  Companion legislation was also introduced in the House.

A number of states have passed similar laws, although several laws have been struck down by the courts. The Pennsylvania legislature recently passed a similar law but Pennsylvania's Governor vetoed the law on Thursday November 21, 2019.

 

#### Dr. Ben Carson's statement on the sanctity of life
In anticipation of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Dr. Ben S. Carson, professor-emeritus of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University, wrote this commentary for the Washington Times.
Attempting to characterize love and compassion for human life as a “war on women” is deceitful and pathetic.
 

#### Dr. Diane Meier on assisted suicide
Courtesy of Wesley Smith's blog, here is a link to some insightful commentary by Dr. Diane Meier on assisted suicide. Meier was a proponent of assisted suicide, but has changed her view on the issue.  Her emphasis is on palliative care. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/04/08/assisted-suicide-ex-proponent-dr-diane-meier-speaks-wisdom/

Richard M.

#### Dr. Edmund Pellegrino, R.I.P.
Dr. Edmund Pellegrino died yesterday at 92. Dr. Pellegrino was the recipient of University Faculty for Life's Smith Award for distinguished contributions to pro-life scholarship. Here is a link to a brief comment that I posted on the Mirror of Justice blog. http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2013/06/dr-edmund-pellegrino-rip.html

Dr. Pellegrino was a giant in the field of bioethics and he influenced many with his voluminous writings and his example. His passing is a great loss.

See also http://www.catholicsentinel.org/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=34&ArticleID=21620 and http://www.americamagazine.org/content/all-things/cua-mourns-passing-11th-president-edmund-pellegrino and http://www.cathstan.org/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=23&ArticleID=5720

Richard M.

#### Dr. Jack Willke, RIP
Dr. John C. "Jack" Willke, father of the pro-life movement and long-time UFL member, died on February 20th. While this is a sad day for the right-to-life movement, let us be extremely grateful for his enduring pro-life work. His obituary notice can be found here. An article about his achievements for the pro-life movement can be found at LifeNews.com. HT Jeff Koloze.

#### Dr. Moschella talks about IVF and Children at MU
On April 29th Marquette Students for Life and Marquette University Faculty for Life sponsored a lunch and evening talk by Melissa Moschella, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Catholic University of America and Fellow at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. She spoke on the detrimental physical, psychological, social, and spiritual effects of IVF on the children conceived by the procedure.

Dr. Moschella presented at the 2014 UFL Conference at Fordham University.

Dr. Melissa Moschella lectures on the effect of IVF on children.

Marquette students and faculty listen to Dr. Moschella's presentation.

Dr. Moschella discusses with a member of the audience after the lunch talk.

#### Dr. Peter Saunders discusses the abortion/breast cancer link
Here is a link to a LifeNews article by Dr. Peter Saunders discussing recent developments concerning the abortion/breast cancer link. http://www.lifenews.com/2013/08/19/73-studies-have-examined-abortion-and-breast-cancer-53-show-higher-risk/ 

It is important that discussions of this issue  are based on the best science available. The piece by Dr. Saunders ends with this carefully expressed opinion: "This is clearly a debate that will run and run and in which huge vested interests are involved. In the meantime women should not be fobbed off with the unjustified absolutism of the summary sentence from the RCOG, as most presently are. Rather they should be made aware that a link between abortion and breast cancer is biologically plausible but that the evidence is still hotly disputed by researchers, obstetricians and gynaecologists."

Richard M.

 

#### Draft Opinion Overruling Roe and Casey
Here is link to the Politico report.
The report includes a draft opinion overruling Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The draft opinion was purportedly written by Justice Alito and allegedly reflects the views of five Justices (Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett). The opinion is, of course, not final and opinions and votes frequently change  before a decision is officially released.

The draft opinion would be a huge victory for the pro-life cause. The decision would not require states to prohibit abortion. States would, however, have considerable freedom to enact pro-life laws. Approximately half of the states would drastically restrict abortion. Other states, such as California and New York, would likely allow abortion in most circumstances.

The leak of the draft opinion is unprecedented and the consequences for the Court will likely reverberate for years.

#### Dutch proposal to expand meaning of "unbearable suffering"
Here is a link to a post on Wesley Smith's blog about  a position paper from the Dutch Physician's Association seeking to expand the factors to be considered in assessing whether a patient's suffering is "unbearable," thus making the patient eligible for assisted suicide. 

According to the article to which Smith refers--"Until now, factors such as income or a patient's social life played almost no role when physicians were considering a euthanasia request. However, the new guidelines will certainly change that. After almost a year of discussions, the KNMG has published a paper which says a combination of social factors and diseases and ailments that are not terminal may also qualify as unbearable and lasting suffering under the Euthanasia Act."

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/10/18/dutch-docs-to-expand-definition-of-suffering-for-euthanasia-to-include-loneliness-and-finances/

Richard M.

#### ECHR Ruling on abortion expected on Thursday Dec. 16
The European Court of Human Rights is expected to issue its ruling in an important abortion case from Ireland on Thursday December 16, 2010. http://www.lifenews.com/2010/12/15/wbs-112/ As the LifeNews story notes, there is a possibility that the Court will dismiss the case without reaching the merits.

Bill Saunders has an article in the Suummer 2010 issue of the Human Life Review that explains how the ruling might be used by abortion rights activists to support the existence of an international right to abortion. See http://www.humanlifereview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=113:the-abcs-of-an-international-right-to-abortion&catid=52:2010-summer   

Richard M.

#### ECLJ on the Decision of the Polish Constitutional Court Rejecting Eugenic Abortion
From the European Centre for Law and Justice, here is a report of a recent decision of the Polish Constitutional Court. The Court "rendered a historic decision declaring that eugenic abortion is contrary to the dignity and life of the human being, the respect of which is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution."

#### Economist debate on assisted suicide
Here  is a link to a BioEdge story about a debate on assisted suicide published in the Economist.

#### Ed Whelan on the chemical abortion case
Here is a link to Ed Whelan's observations on the Supreme Court's decision in the chemical abortion case. The Supreme Court found that the pro-life doctors who challenged the FFDA's approval of access to mifepristone did not have standing to sue. The Court did not, therefore, rule on the merits. Moreover, the Court's decision relies on the availability of conscience protections for doctors don't want to participate in chemical abortions.

#### Ed Whelan on the Dobbs case
Here is a link to a National Review piece by Ed Whelan arguing that the US Supreme Court ought to grant review in the Dobbs case, which involves the constitutionality of Mississippi's law banning abortion after 15 weeks gestational age.

#### Ed Whelan on the Fifth Circuit Decision Upholding a Texas Statute Banning Dismemberment Abortions
Here is a link to a post by Ed Whelan discussing a recent decision from the Fifth Circuit. Here is Whelan:  "In an important decision yesterday in Whole Woman’s Health v. Paxton, the en banc Fifth Circuit ruled by a vote of 9 to 5 that a Texas law that generally prohibits the live-dismemberment version of the dilation-and-evacuation (D&E) abortion method is permissible under the Supreme Court’s abortion precedents."

#### Ed Whelan on the Oral Arguments in the Texas Heartbeat Case
Here is a link to a short item from Ed Whelan about the oral arguments in the Texas Heartbeat case. Whelan links to other articles discussing the arguments, including two long posts by Stephen Sachs.

UPDATE: Here is a link to another piece by Whelan. The more recent piece also includes a link to a third post by Sachs.

#### editing the human genome
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in Great Britain has given approval for the Francis Crick Institute in London to begin altering the DNA in embryos. The embryos will be acquired through in vitro fertilization procedures and are to be killed after 14 days of life. Such callous disregard for human life reveals the inhumanity of in vitro fertilization procedures and human genome editing.

#### Eighth Circuit Affirms Injunction Prohibiting Enforcement of Arkansas Abortion Law; Two Judges Call for Reexamination of Casey
Here is link to today's decision by the Eighth Circuit affirming an injunction prohibiting enforcement of two provisions of Arkansas law restricting abortion. One provision prohibits abortion after 18 weeks and the other provision prohibits abortion after a Down Syndrome diagnosis if the abortion is sought due to that reason.

Two judges (Judges Shepherd and Erickson) concurred but also wrote separately to indicate their dissatisfaction with the Supreme Court's viability standard. Judge Shepherd stated:

"Today’s opinion is another stark reminder that the viability standard fails to adequately consider the substantial interest of the state in protecting the lives of unborn children as well as the state’s 'compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics.'”

The two judges called for the Supreme Court to re-examine Casey.

These two concurring opinions continue a trend of lower court judges expressing disagreement with the Supreme Court's decisions in Roe and Casey. I have written about this trend in this short article.

 

#### Eighth Circuit Enjoins Missouri Down Syndrome Abortion Law
Here is a link to today's decision by the Eighth Circuit affirming a district court decision enjoining Missouri's Down Syndrome abortion law. The appellate court's decision was 2-1 with Judge Stras in dissent.

The Missouri law prohibits abortions if the provider “knows that the woman is seeking the abortion solely because of a prenatal diagnosis, test, or screening indicating Down [s]yndrome or the potential of Down [s]yndrome in an unborn child.”

The Eighth Circuit had previously upheld constitutional challenges to a similar Arkansas law. The state of Arkansas has asked the US Supreme Court to review that earlier decision.

These Eighth Circuit decisions are inconsistent with the Sixth Circuit's decision upholding the constitutionality of Ohio's Down Syndrome abortion.

 

#### Eighth Circuit Grants Rehearing En banc in Missouri Down Syndrome case
Here is a link to an order granting rehearing en banc in Reproductive Health Services v. Parson, which involves the constitutionality of Missouri's ban on Down syndrome abortions. The ban was struck down last month but the full Eighth Circuit, in a sua sponte order, has now granted rehearing en banc.

The federal courts are divided on the constitutionality of such statutes. The issue will likely not be finally resolved until after the Supreme Court decides the Dobbs case next Term.

#### Eighth Circuit Relies on Chief Justice Roberts's Opinion in Arkansas Abortion Case
Here is a link a story in the National Law Journal about a decision from the United State Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The appellate court relied on Chief Justice Roberts's opinion in June Medical. Roberts's vote was the controlling factor in June Medical and he endorsed a view of the undue burden standard that is more likely to result in laws regulating abortion being held constitutional.

The Eighth Circuit ruling lifted a trial court injunction against four Arkansas laws and returned the case to the lower court to consider the Arkansas laws under the standard set forth in Roberts's opinion.

"The four Arkansas laws are: the Arkansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act; the Sex Discrimination by Abortion Prohibition Act; an amendment concerning the disposition of fetal remains, and an amendment concerning the maintenance of forensic samples from abortions performed on a child."

#### Eighth Circuit Reverses Injunction against Missouri Abortion Law
Here is a LifeNews story about the September 10, 2018 decision of the Eighth Circuit reversing a ruling that enjoined the application of a Missouri abortion statute. The law requires that abortionists have admitting privileges at local hospitals and also requires abortion clinics to meet state requirements for ambulatory surgical centers.  The Missouri law is similar to the Texas statute that the Supreme Court invalidated in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt (2016).

The Eighth Circuit held that the lower court's ruling was premature since the lower court based its ruling "on less than adequate information and an insufficient regard for the relevant [legal] standard." The appellate court sent the case back to the lower court for additional fact-finding.

#### Elena Kagan and partial birth abortion
There has been a lot of controversy about Elena Kagan's testimony in her Supreme Court confirmation hearings as it relates to the issue of partial birth abortion. Americans United for Life has just released a powerful analysis of the whole matter. See http://www.aul.org/featured-images/Kagan-Ethics-Report.pdf

Richard M.

#### Elizabeth Kirk on "The Meaning of Kansas"
Here is a link to an excellent essay by Elizabeth Kirk entitled "The Meaning of Kansas: Lessons from a Pro-Life Defeat." Kirk explores the lessons from the recent defeat of the Kansas "Value them Both" constitutional amendment. Kirk explains that the defeat is not properly understood as a rebuke of Dobbs.

#### Elizabeth Kirk on the Kansas Supreme Court's abortion decision
Here is a link to an excellent article by Elizabeth Kirk on the recent abortion decision from the Kansas Supreme Court. Kirk states: "In the wake of this decision and in the political context of abortion, the only remedy left to the people of Kansas is to pass a constitutional amendment to declare that there is no “fundamental right to abortion” in the state’s constitution and to allow the legislature to make reasonable laws about abortion."

#### Ellen McCormack, pro-life Democratic presidential candidate, dead at 84
Ellen McCormack, pro-life candidate in the Democratic primaries for president in the 1970s, has died.  Interested persons may wish to balance the obituary of the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/us/30mccormack.html?_r=1) with that of Dr. Michael New (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/263499/ellen-mccormack-rip-michael-j-new).  Thanks to Dr. Jane Gilroy, author of the definitive biography about Ellen McCormack’s presidential bids, for this information.

#### Embryo Adoption and Persona Humana
University Faculty for Life member, Gerard Nadal, has a series of essays posted on Lifesite News  arguing that the  declaration on certain questions on sexual ethics by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,  Persona Humana, does not foreclose embryo adoption by faithful Catholic couples.  Dr. Nadal points to a statement  by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, that the question is still open for discussion.  The thrust of Dr. Nadal's argument in favor of adoption is that, though the mother and father commit grave sin in creating new life outside the marital act, Church documents indicate that the soul is presumed present from the very beginning of a human’s life, and that life is to be protected and safeguarded.

#### Embryo adoption article
Here is an article from Crux that discusses the pros and cons of the adoption of IVF embryos. In includes some quotes by UFL member Janet E. Smith.

"A Catholic dilemma: Should IVF embryos be adopted?" by Michael O'Loughlin

#### En banc Ninth Circuit Allows HHS Title X Regulations to Take Effect
Here is a link to a recent (February 24, 2020) 7-4 decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejecting a challenge to HHS Regulations implementing Title X of the Public Health Service Act. Title X prohibits grant funds from being used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.

#### En Banc Sixth Circuit Upholds Ohio's Down Syndrome Abortion Law
Here is a link to the Sixth Circuit's decision upholding Ohio's law  that "prohibits a doctor from performing an abortion if that doctor knows that the woman’s reason for having the abortion is that she does not want a child with Down syndrome."

The court explained that the law does not prohibit a woman from obtaining an abortion because she does not want a child with Down syndrome, and so does not create an indue burden on the right to abortion. The law is focused on the doctor and the court concluded that the law advanced legitimate state interests:

" [protecting] (1) the Down syndrome community from the practice of Down-syndrome-selective abortions and the stigma associated with it; (2) pregnant women and their families from coercion by doctors who advocate the abortion of Down-syndrome-afflicted fetuses; and (3) the integrity and ethics of the medical profession by preventing doctors from becoming witting participants in Down-syndrome-selective abortions."

This case is likely headed for the US Supreme Court.

#### Encouraging Gallup Survey on Abortion
Here is a National Right to Life News story on an encouraging Gallup poll on attitudes on abortion.  http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/05/gallup-survey-finds-opposition-to-most-abortions-belief-that-abortion-is-morally-wrong/ Here is Wesley Smith's comment on the survey. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/05/23/americans-becoming-much-more-anti-abortion/

Richard M.

#### EPPC Pro-Life Statement
Here is link to very good statement from the Ethics & Public Policy Center. The statement is entitled "Protecting the Unborn: A Scholars' Statement of Pro-Life Principle and Political Prudence."

The statement advances two key points:

"the first of pro-life principle, the second of political prudence.
First, the principle: Just as justice requires us to protect all unborn children, so too does it require us to protect access to life-affirming medical treatment for pregnant women facing grave medical complications. This is part of the pro-life ideal, not an exception to it. Ensuring access to such treatments is morally right and consistent with giving both mothers and unborn children the same protections accorded to others."

"Second, the prudential: While children at all stages of development ought to enjoy the law’s protections, political realities may make it impossible to achieve this fully and immediately in many jurisdictions. When that is so, enacting the most pro-life law realistically possible is justified. We should not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good where the perfect is not currently feasible, but a law better than the legal status quo is achievable. Even as citizens and lawmakers may accept less-than-ideal laws on abortion, we must always make
clear that the ultimate goal toward which we steadily work is to protect every human being in law and life."

#### Erika Bachiochi on sexual asymmetry and reproductive justice
The second plenary session on Saturday, June 7, of the UFL Conference was a talk by Erika Bachiochi called, "Women, men, Sexual Asymmetry and Authentic Reproductive Justice." In it she discusses the natural asymmetry between men and women when it comes to the consequences of sexual activity: because of the possibility of pregnancy women have a much greater stake in a sexual encounter.  Bachiochi notes that the second-wave feminist "solutions" to the problem, contraception and abortion, can be shown to have made the disparity even worse, since now men are completely freed from any responsibility for the outcome and women have a greater burden to make sure their sexual encounters don't end in pregnancy, up to and including having an abortion, which then wreaks havoc on women physically and psychologically. Among the results is skyrocketing rates of poverty due to single motherhood.

Bachiochi recommends several cultural strategies, such as  an affirmation of the value of women's fertility and motherhood, including in the workplace. If a society genuinely wants to safeguard a woman's equal opportunity, it must not penalize a woman for being fertile or for being a mother. It must make accommodations to compensate for the natural asymmetry. It shouldn't make a woman have to deny her nature, as it so often does now, in order to participate in the common life. Also, men need to be held accountable for the consequences of their sexual activity, rather than given tools to avoid responsibility

Bachiochi's web site can be accessed here.

Note: my crack team of photographers [me] was unable to get a usable photograph at this session.

#### Erika Bachiochi on the Future of Pro-Life Feminism
Here is a link to an interesting interview in Public Discourse with Erika Bachiochi on  pro-life feminism, and many other topics.

#### Erika Bachiochi on the June Medical case
Here is a link to a good essay by Erika Bachiochi on the June Medical case and what the decision means for the pro-life cause.

#### Essay Contest open to Graduate and Undergraduate Students
Just confirmed that University Faculty for Life Essay Contest is open to both undergraduate and graduate college students.  For more information including the rules for the Contest see my previous post here.

#### Ethical stem cell research
Colleagues involved in stem cell research or students writing papers on the topic may find information on the John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute website helpful.   Donations to The John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute are tax-deductible.  Please check the institute’s website for more information: http://jp2sri.org/.

#### EU rejects making abortion a human right.
Good news from the EU. According to the National Catholic Register, the EU Parliament has rejected a report that proposed that EU define abortion as a human right.  The parliament accepted alternative reports that reaffirmed that decisions about abortion and sex education belong to the individual member nations

#### Europe and conscience protection
At the Public Discourse website, here is a report by Matthew Schmitz on a very troubling conscience proposal that will be considered by the Council of Europe on October 7, 2010. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/10/1762 The report states: "The central feature of the resolution is a call for enforcement against conscientious objectors who refuse to perform or make referrals for abortion."

Update: Here is a report from Lifesitenews on the latest developments. The Council rejected the original proposal. The amended resolution affirms the right of conscientious objection. http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/oct/10100709.html Here is a link to a statement from the European Centre for Law and Justice, which strongly supported the right of conscientious objection,  http://www.eclj.org/Releases/Read.aspx?GUID=8c297b2f-ada7-4047-a8e4-134bb5f16fa8&s=eur and a link to Wesley Smith's comment. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/10/09/council-of-europe-votes-to-protect-medical-conscience/ 

Here is Terry McKeegan's report. http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1718/pub_detail.asp 

Richard M.

#### European law doesn't force Czech Republic to allow abortion
Here is a LifeNews report on this matter. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/09/european-law-doesnt-force-czech-republic-to-offer-abortions/ The Alliance Defense Fund, in an opinion sent to the Czech government, explained that neither international law nor European law requires that the Czech Republic make abortions available to women from other countries. This ADF effort is in part the work of Roger Kiska, who has been doing much good work on pro-life and pro-family issues in Europe.

Richard M.

#### Euthanasia and assisted suicide researchers, FYI.
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition recommends this research:

http://noeuthanasia.org.au/documents/papers/MB-59303-euthanasia-and-assisted-suicide_071714-somerville-and-Bourdreau.pdf

#### Euthanasia and Organ Procurement
Wesley Smith notes the increased acceptance of coupling euthanasia with organ harvesting in his July 4 Weekly Standard article. He notes that Julian Savulescu, a Romanian born Oxford bioethicist, supported this trend in a scholarly paper published in Bioethics. Wesley notes that Belgian doctors and bioethicists have been promoting the idea since at least 2008, pointing to procurement of  “‘ ‘high quality’ of organs obtained from patients after euthanasia of people with degenerative neuro/muscular disabilities.”

#### Euthanasia Bill in South Australia is defeated
Here is a link to the LifeNews story on this good news from South Australia. http://www.lifenews.com/2010/11/24/bio-3218/ After it appeared that the bill to legalize euthanasia was going to be defeated in the Upper House of the Parliament, the sponsor pulled the bill.

Richard M.

#### Euthanasia case to be heard by Canadian court
Here is a link to the Life News story on the Rasouli case that will be heard by a Canadian court next month.  http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/19/canada-supreme-court-to-hear-key-euthanasia-case-in-may/ The Rasouli case involves an important issue concerning whether doctors need consent before withdrawing life sustaining medical treatment.

Richard M.

#### Euthanasia for children in Belgium
From LifeNews.com, here is a story marking a deplorable development--the first reported instance of euthanasia of a minor in Belgium. The details are sketchy, but you can be sure that this won't be the last.

http://www.lifenews.com/2016/09/19/first-child-dies-after-belgium-approves-measure-allowing-doctors-to-euthanize-children/

Here's additional commentary on this from Michael Cook.http://www.mercatornet.com/careful/view/euthanasia-for-kids-kicks-off-in-belgium/18691

#### Euthanasia rates rise in Belgium and other statistics
LifeSiteNews.com reports that euthanasia has increased in Belgium 26.8% in 2013.  This is after a 25% increase in 2012.  The article also includes statistics about unreported euthanasia and involuntary euthanasia.

#### Euthanasia, psychological suffering, and Belgian medicine
Here is an article by Michael Cook that asks the question: "Is euthanasia for psychological suffering changing Belgian medicine?" Here is Cook's concluding paragraph: "It's clear now that euthanasia for psychological suffering is out of control. Only about 40 of Belgium's 2,000 euthanasia deaths each year are psychiatric patients. But it appears that the controls which are supposed to limit this to the most extreme cases are no longer working. Wim Distelmans is a euthanasia radical. If he is worried, the rest of Belgium should be terrified."

#### Excellent essay by Richard Doerflinger on Assisted Suicide
Here is a link to an excellent essay by Richard Doerflinger on assisted suicide.  Here is his concluding paragraph:

"The people most harmed by this agenda are seriously ill people hearing from society and physicians that death by overdose will end their problems; other patients suffering from a reduced commitment to care; people with disabilities who are next in line to be seen as a “burden” on others; and lonely and depressed people of any age, seduced by the message that suicide is a positive solution. They are not numerous or powerful enough to fight for their rights or make lawmakers treat them as having their own equal and innate dignity. That task, then, belongs to all of us."

#### Excellent essay by Richard Stith on assisted suicide
Here is a link to an excellent essay by Richard Stith entitled "Making Death Easier Makes Life Harder." Here is his concluding paragraph:

"Each withdrawal of protection against suicide endangers not only the lives but also the human dignity and support relationships of persons with burdensome infirmities. By contrast, when our law and culture treat suicide as a tragic rather than a benign choice and refuse to facilitate it, those most in need are more likely to receive sympathetic help rather than guilt-inducing blame and resentment. Opponents of the legalization of assisted suicide thus have not only strong pro-life arguments but also telling quality-of-life arguments that they need to bring up whenever any right to suicide is being debated."

#### Existential distress not pain drives euthanasia
Here is an interesting story on a study about the reasons patients request assisted suicide. The primary reason cited was "existential distress" and not pain. Interestingly, in the oral arguments in Myers v. Schneiderman, the New York case involving the constitutionality of New York's ban on assisted suicide, the plaintiffs' lawyer repeatedly emphasized that the plaintiffs sought assistance in committing suicide due to unbearable pain.

#### Expansion of Embryonic Stem Cell Research
David Prentice has a very helpful article, Stem Cell Bill Ignores Patients and Real Science, on The Hill blog.  It contains links to prior legislation, an NIH report and ongoing litigation regarding government funding of ESCR.

#### Fall 2017 issue of the UFL newsletter is now available
Here is a link to the fall 2017 issue of ProVita, the newsletter of University Faculty for Life. Many thanks to Margaret Hughes for her great work in editing the newsletter!!!

#### Fall 2018 issue of ProVita is now available
The Fall 2018 issue of ProVita (the University Faculty for Life newsletter) has been posted on the UFL website. Here is a link.

Many thanks to Margaret Hughes for her excellent work on the newsletter!!!

#### Fall 2020/Winter 2021 Issue of Pro Vita is Now Available
Here is a link to the latest issue of Pro Vita, University Faculty for Life's newsletter. The newsletter is edited by Margaret Hughes. The issue notes details about UFL's 2021 annual meeting/conference. The theme of the conference is "Pro-Life Feminism, the Law, and Women's Health." The keynote speakers are Kathleen Mary Raviele, Erika Bachiochi, and Angela Franks. Keith and Elizabeth Cassidy will receive the Smith Award.

#### Fall 2021 Issue of Pro Vita is Now Available
Here is a link to the latest issue of Pro Vita, the University Faculty for Life (UFL) newsletter.

The Fall 2021 issue includes a touching letter from Mary Lemmons, UFL President, columns from Chris Kaczor and Richard Myers, and information about UFL's upcoming annual conference, which will be held at Notre Dame on June 10-11, 2022.

Many thanks to Margaret Hughes for her work in editing the newsletter.!!!

#### Father Miscamble's defense of Harry Truman
Here is a link to Father Miscamble's recent essay defending Harry Truman. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/12/4422

Father Miscamble's essay is a response to an earlier essay by Christopher Tollefsen in which Tollefsen criticizes Father Miscamble's book ("The Most Controversial Decision") about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Tollefsen contends that Father Miscamble has abandoned a moral absolute--that the intentional killing of the innocent is always wrong--and that so doing is ultimatley threatening to the pro-life cause.  Miscamble contends that "Tollefsen's critique is rather abstract and detached from a real understanding of the war against Japan in 1945 and the courses of action open to Harry Truman." In the end, Miscamble concludes that his position doesn't lead to "the unraveling of the entire pro-life garment. [Miscamble believes] that Truman pursued the least-harmful course of action available to end a ghastly war, a course that resulted in the least loss of life."

Richard M.

#### FDA warning on Evital emergancy contraception
The FDA has issued an a warning to consumers regarding Evital, an unapproved emergancy contraception pill. The warning can be found here.  Commentators have noted that Plan B One Step and Next Choice are the only FDA approved emergency contraception drugs. The American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologists have a webpage containing information on the safety and effectiveness of emergency contraception as well as its impact on preborn human life.  The Latest Word on Emergency Contraception: How Effective Is It? provides a good, but dated, overview of the issues surrounding such drugs.

#### Federal Appeals Court blocks Mississippi Heartbeat Law
Here is a link to an opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirming a lower court opinion enjoining Mississippi's law banning abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat. The court's brief per curiam relied on existing precedent.

#### Federal court allows Title X regulations blocking funding to clinics that provide, or refer for, abortion to go into effect
Here and here are two stories from the National Right to Life News and Lifenews on the June 20, 2019 decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Here is a comment from Dave Andrusko's article: "the rule change made by HHS restored–emphasis on restored–Title X family planning regulations to prohibit grantees from co-locating with abortion clinics, or from referring clients for abortion. Nothing to do with cutting family planning money—none was cut—but everything to do with ensuring that health facilities receiving Title X funds do not perform or promote abortion as a method of family planning."

The Ninth Circuit stayed injunctions issued by lower courts. The court of appeals' ruling (link here) was based on the court's view that the Administration was likely to prevail on its appeals from the lower court rulings.

#### Federal Court Blocks Ohio Law Prohibiting Abortions due to Disability
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the October 11, 2019 decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirming a lower court decision that enjoined a Ohio law prohibiting abortion due to the disability of the unborn child. The decision was 2-1. The dissent,  by Judge Alice M. Batchelder, echoed many of the themes expressed in Justice Clarence Thomas's opinion in Box v. Planned Parenthood. In that opinion, Justice Thomas stated that states have "a compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics."

#### Federal Court of Appeals Allows Texas to Restrict Abortions due to Coronavirus Crisis
Here is a link to a LifeNews story with the developments. Other states have also restricted abortions during the crisis, but some courts have allowed the abortion clinics to continue to operate. The LifeNews story has reports on the developments in other states.

#### Federal Court of Appeals Invalidates Alabama's Ban on Dismemberment Abortions
Here is a link to a LifeNews.com story on the 11th Circuit's August 22, 2018 decision in West Alabama Women's Center v. Williamson affirming a lower court decision invalidating Alabama's ban on dismemberment abortions. Here is a link to the court's opinion.

An interesting feature of the decision is that both Chief Judge Carnes (the author of the lead opinion) and Judge Dubina (who wrote a short special concurrence) indicated their dissatisfaction with Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Judge Dubina expressly noted that he agreed with Justice Thomas's view that the Supreme Court's abortion jurisprudence has no basis in the Constitution.  This case is likely headed to the United States Supreme Court.

#### Federal court of appeals strikes down a Baltimore law requiring crisis pregnancy centers to promote abortion
Here is a link to a LifeNews story about a recent federal court of appeals decision striking down a Baltimore City ordinance requiring crisis pregnancy centers to promote abortion. A  case from the Ninth Circuit upheld a similar California statute and that case is now before the US Supreme Court.

Here is a comment from Americans United for Life (AUL) praising the decision: “The ordinance in the Baltimore case is a blatant attempt to undermine the life-affirming work of pregnancy care centers by forcing the posting of messages about abortions in their facilities. Clearly, the abortion industry feels threatened by the ability of these dedicated pregnancy care centers to provide women with alternatives to abortion, and is trying to protect their profits by forcing pro-life pregnancy centers to promote abortion. AUL is extremely pleased that the Fourth Circuit unanimously recognized the free speech rights of these commendable pro-life centers, and we look forward to continuing to be active in court cases defending their ability to serve women and their children with love and respect.”

 

#### Federal Court Protects Doctors' Refusal to Perform Abortions
Here is a link to a story by Wesley Smith discussing a recent federal court decision protecting doctors who have religious objections to performing abortions.

#### federal judge enjoins expanded exemption to HHS Mandate
Here is a link to a LifeNews story reporting on a recent decision from a federal judge in Pennsylvania enjoining the Trump Administration's expanded exemption to the HHS mandate. The new exemption would have protected the Little Sisters of the Poor and others with religious and moral exemptions to providing coverage for "contraceptives," some of which may cause abortions.

#### Federal Judge enjoins Obama Administration funding of Embryonic Stem Cell Research
A federal district court judge has enjoined the Obama Administration's effort to fund embryonic stem cell research. The judge found that such efforts are prohibited by the Dickey-Wicker Amendment.

Here is a report from the New York Times.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/health/policy/24stem.html

Here is a report from LifeNews.com, http://www.lifenews.com/bio3145.html , and one from the Bioethics Defense Fund.http://bdfbuzz.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/victory-federal-court-strikes-down-obama-embryonic-stem-cell-funding-guidelines/ 

Richard M.

#### federal judge holds Georgia's heartbeat law unconstitutional
Here is a link to an October 1, 2019 decision by a federal judge in Georgia invalidating Georgia's heartbeat law. This ruling is consistent with other decisions from around the country invalidating heartbeat laws, which prohibit abortion after an unborn baby's heartbeat is detectable.

#### federal judge upholds important provisions of Virginia's abortion statute
Here is a link to a Lifenews story on a September 30, 2019 decision by United States District Judge Henry Hudson of the Eastern District of Virginia. Judge Hudson upheld the portions of the law that require an ultrasound, that impose a 24-hour waiting period, and that require that physicians perform abortions. The court also partially upheld the requirement that abortions be performed in hospitals.

#### Federal Tax Dollars Paid for 300 DC Abortions
Public funding was provided for approximately 300 abortions in the District of Columbia during the past two years, prior to recent repeal of that funding by Congress.  The story is reported on a blog of the Washington Post here.

#### Feminist work on Jewish fathers needed
 I need quality scholarly, not polemic, articles dealing with the role of the father in the abortion decisions of characters in contemporary Jewish fiction.  Other literary theories are being addressed, but there is a paucity of work in the feminist area, most of the critical literature discussing the mother’s perspective.  The anticipated date of presentation of the paper is June 2011.  Please reply to my email of record.

#### Fetal pain laws and the moral imagination
O. Carter Snead of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture recently gave a talk at the National Right to Life Convention in which he discussed the way fetal pain laws can help citizens develop a moral imagination that sees the unborn as persons.

#### Fewer doctors willing to do abortions
The current issue of the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology contains an article reporting on a survey of 1800 obstetricans and gynecologists, Abortion Provision Among Practicing Obstetrician-Gynecologists.  The authors summarize the survey results as follows:

Among practicing ob-gyns, 97% encountered patients seeking abortions, whereas 14% performed them. Female physicians were more likely to provide abortions than were male (18.6% compared with 10.6%, adjusted odds ratio 2.54, 95% confidence interval 1.57–4.08), as were those in the youngest age group, those in the Northeast or West, those in highly urban postal codes, and those who identify as being Jewish. Catholics, Evangelical Protestants, non-Evangelical Protestants, and physicians with high religious motivation were less likely to provide abortions.

Hat-tip to Lifesite News on Twitter.

#### Fewer surgical abortions in Michigan this year
According to Right to Life Michigan's analysis of statistics from the Michigan Department of Community Health, the number of abortions has dropped 53% since 1987. The percentage of teenage abortions has dropped as well. See LifeNews.com article.

#### fictional abortion history
Justice Blackmun's discussion of the history of abortion in Roe v. Wade has been much criticized. Here is a good piece by Justin Dyer on the the fallacies of Justice Blackmun's treatment of the issue.  http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/336398/fictional-abortion-history-justin-dyer#

Richard M.

#### Fifth Circuit Allows States to End Funding of Planned Parenthood
Here is a link to an AP story on today's decision by the en banc Fifth Circuit. The court ruled that Texas and Louisiana can refuse to provide Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood clinics. Because the ruling conflicts with rulings by other federal courts of appeals, the case is likely headed for the US Supreme Court.

#### Fifth Circuit Allows Texas to Ban Non-essential Abortions during Pandemic
Here is a link to LifeNews story describing the Fifth Circuit ruling. The Fifth Circuit was split 2-1. The majority opinion was by Judge Kyle Duncan.

#### Fifth Circuit Ruling on Chemical Abortions
Here is a link to a story by Ed Whelan on the August 16, 2023 decision by the Fifth Circuit. The appellate court upheld important parts of the trial court's order that found that the FDA's approval of mifepristone was unlawful.

The lower court's ruling is, however, on hold pending Supreme Court review.

Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the decision.

#### Fifth Circuit Sends Heartbeat Case to Texas Supreme Court
Here is a link to the Fifth Circuit's order. The divided panel sent the Texas Heartbeat case to the Texas Supreme Court.

This order was issued after the case was remanded to the 5th Circuit by the US Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court, which refused a request to enjoin the law pending the challenges to the constitutionality of the statute, suggested that Texas licensing authorities might be proper defendants in the suits challenging the constitutionality of the Texas law. The US Supreme Court did not definitively settle that issue and the 5th Circuit has now certified the question to the Texas Supreme Court to decide this issue of state law.

#### Fifth Circuit Strikes Down Mississippi Abortion Law
On December 13, 2019, the Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision striking down Mississippi's law banning abortions after "15 weeks' gestational age." The decision is noteworthy, though, for the opinion by Judge James Ho who concurred in the judgment. Here is a link to the opinion.

Judge Ho's opinion will undoubtedly attract much attention. He notes that "Nothing in the text or original understanding of the Constitution establishes a right to an abortion." He went on to critique the district court opinion because, as Judge Ho explains, that opinion "displays an alarming disrespect for the millions of Americans who believe that babies deserve legal protection during pregnancy as well as before birth, and that abortion is the immoral, tragic, and violent taking of innocent human life." I will have more to say about Judge Ho's opinion in later posts.

#### Finnis and George Response to Aaron Tang
Here is a link to a recent essay by John Finnis and Robert George. The essay is a response to a paper by Aaron Tang. In a recent paper, Tang argued that pro-life advocates (such as Finnis and George) have inaccurately described the historical record about the number of states that prohibited abortion in 1868 (the effective date of the 14th Amendment).

In their new essay, Finnis and George explain that Tang's essay "is conceptually even more confused and historically even more error-strewn" than the deeply flawed historical work of Cyril Means, whose work was relied upon by Justice Blackmun in Roe v. Wade.

#### First plenary session: Mother Agnes Donovan, SV
Mother Agnes

The first plenary session on Saturday of the Life and Learning Convention featured Mother Agnes Donovan of the Sisters for Life. The title of her talk was "Witness to Truth: A Spirituality to Sustain Us." Mother Agnes invited pro-life activists to invite the doubtful and the hurting into a relationship of love with Jesus, who can heal and help us become what God wants us to be.

The method she advocates is based on the writings of Fr. William Virtue and on attachment theory. In order to love others properly, we need first of all to become aware of and attracted to the good that is already within them, instead of focusing on their problems or their pain or their rebellion.  Genuine love is caused by the other, whose good moves us. We then take action for his or her own good in response to having been moved. Once we seek to delight in the good that is in them, we can do the loving thing in response to that goodness that helps them move from darkness to light. Her advice is to "[b]e moved into the light with the good of another. Then be moved to delight."

 

#### First Things Blog comments on UFL Conference and blog
Congratulations to Richard Stith in having his comment on defunding Planned Parenthood picked up on the First Things Blog.  The blog also had some nice things to say about our annual conferences.

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2011/06/25/planned-parenthood-should-not-be-funded/

#### Florida Supreme Court Rejects State Right to Abortion
Here is a link to a National Right to Life News story about two decisions from the Florida Supreme Court. The Court rejected the argument that the Florida Constitution's right to privacy protects the right to abortion. The case  upheld a law prohibiting most abortions after 15 weeks and paves the way for Florida's heartbeat law, which would prohibit most abortions after 6 weeks.

The Court also, in another case, allowed a ballot measure that would protect the right to abortion to be placed on the ballot in November 2024.

#### Florida's 24-hour waiting period for an abortion ruled unconstitutional
Here  is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about a recent decision holding Florida's 24-hour waiting period for an abortion unconstitutional. Waiting periods have typically been upheld by the courts. This ruling is based on Florida's Constitution, which in contrast to the US Constitution provides explicit protection for privacy rights.

#### Forsythe speaks on Roe v. Wade
For those of you in the Twin Cities area, consider going to hear Clarke Forsythe speak on Roe v. Wade on Tuesday, November 5th.

Join the Prolife Center at UST this Tuesday night at 7 p.m. to hear constitutional litigator and author, Clarke Forsythe, discuss what events and people led the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the laws of 50 states and write abortion in to the Constitution.  Clarke has represented three parties before the Supreme Court and written numerous amicus briefs in other cases.  He is the former president of Americans United for Life, a leading prolife organization.  He will discuss what he learned as he researched his new book, Abuse of Discretion: The Inside Story of Roe v. Wade.
The talk will be held Tuesday, November 5, 2013 from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM at University of St. Thomas, Owens Science Center, 3M Auditorium, on the corner of Cretin and Grand in Saint Paul, MN.

#### forthcoming article of interest
Two pro-choice advocates are publishing an article of interest in The Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics: Glenn Cohen and Sadath Sayeed, Fetal Pain, Abortion, Viability and the Constitution (forthcoming April/May 2011).

One significant point is that the authors implicitly corroborate the irrelevance of viability to the personhood of an infant born alive in an abortion context.  They pose a hypothetical in which a woman in an abortion clinic “goes into active, uncontrollable labor and . . . deliver[s] an extremely premature newborn.”  Given the child’s “long odds,” i.e., its likely non-viability, the woman asks the clinic to provide “care . . . [to] maximiz[e] comfort and ensur[e] dignity during the dying process.  This palliative choice is respected by her providers because in the U.S. pediatrics community, there is generally consensus that neonates born below 23 weeks by LMP should not be resuscitated given their poor chance of survival without significant disability.”  It is telling that the authors do not envision an alternative for these early neonates—simply crush their heads with a hammer.  It is gratifying that the authors implicitly recognize that a baby born alive is a baby born alive, wherever this occurs.

The article also discusses the new focus on fetal pain as a ground for limiting abortion prior to viability.  The authors assert a weakness in stressing the capacity to feel pain, i.e., it “suggest[s] that animals who can feel pain should also qualify for constitutional personhood at least as to being killed, unless one could offer a constitutionally relevant ‘non-speciesist’ (to use Peter Singer’s term) further distinction between fetuses and animals.”  The authors suggest that it would difficult to offer such a distinction.  Do they actually think that the Constitution makes no distinction between humans and animals?

#### Fr. James Schall, S.J., on the 15 lies at the basis of our culture
Long-time UFL member Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. explains 15 destructive lies that dominate our culture. The first on the list:
....that abortion does not kill a specific, actual human being. All evidence shows that this killing is true. To hold the lie in our souls, we must and do call it a “right” or a “choice” that allows us to pretend that we know not what we do.
The third one is:
...that euthanasia is a “right” to kill oneself or have others do so for us. It is made legitimate by the civil law. Euthanasia is self-inflicted suicide, not an act of compassion or autonomy over ourselves.

#### Fr. Joseph Koterski on philosophy
Here is a neat interview about philosophy in America magazine with UFL board member Fr. Joe Koterski, SJ. "Catholic Philosophy Today: 11 Questions for Joseph Koterski, S.J."

#### France bans Down syndrome video
The French government has banned a video that portrays the lives of children with Down syndrome in positive terms.

"The video features a number of young people from around the globe telling about their lives. Their stories reflect today’s reality of living with Down syndrome and aims to reassure women who have received a prenatal diagnosis. Their message of hope takes away the fears and questions these women may have, often based on outdated stereotypes. The video was produced in 2014 to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day. A day created by Down Syndrome International and officially recognized by the United Nations for the promotion of the human rights of people with Down syndrome."

Why, you might wonder, was the video banned-- because the video might trouble those who deciided to abort a child with Down syndrome. In the words of the French State Counsel, the video was “likely to disturb the conscience of women who had lawfully made different personal life choices.”

For the details, see http://aleteia.org/blogs/deacon-greg-kandra/france-bans-video-of-happy-down-syndrome-children/?ru=31274c1dd0b3e3c08686c0b863611051

#### Frank Beckwith's commentary on Thomson's "A Defense of Abortion"
Here is a link to Frank Beckwith's recent column discussing Judith Jarvis Thomson's famous article entitled "A Defense of Abortion." http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/thomsons-defense-of-abortion-at-forty.html In the article, Thomson presented the violinist analogy.  Frank's discussion in this column  criticizes Thomson's analogy for "not really granting the pro-life view of persoonhood." He concludes this column with this paragraph:

 "Because of these institutions and ways of life – that have existed for generations and do not require one’s consent in order to have normative force – we often find ourselves in a network of relationships in which we are called upon to love those who sometimes can offer us very little in exchange for the good we provide to them. If Thomson had assumed that view of personhood for the sake of argument, her case would have collapsed."

Richard M.

#### Frank Zapatka on "The Other Room" by Zbigniew Herbert
Here are some relections from Frank Zapatka (Emeritus, American U.) on "The Other Room" by Zbigniew Herbert.

Zbigniew Herbert (1924-1998) was a highly regarded Polish poet, dramatist, and essayist. Praised by Nobel Literature prize laureates, Czeslaw Milosz and Wislawa Szymborska, Herbert has been favorably compared to T.S. Eliot.  Among Herbert’s dramatic works is a play in seven scenes, titled “The Other Room” (Drugi  pokoi). Milosz in his History of Polish Literature described it as “the best of” Herbert’s “miniature theatre forms.”  Written ca.1958, anonymously translated into English sometime in the 1970s, it treats what can be described, in part, as euthanasia by omission.

The cast consists of:  “He… She…” and “That which is on the other side of the wall.” The other room is on the other side of the wall where for three years, an unnamed woman “seventy or perhaps eighty” has lived.  The couple’s apartment is presumably in Communist Poland, which place and time however, are never explicitly mentioned.

“He” and “She,” we learn, are annoyed by little things the woman does, so annoyed, that they wish the woman dead. Foreshadowing reference to the fatal ending, the death of the elderly woman, begins early. Discussing their exasperation some fifty lines into scene 1, “She,” the Lady Macbeth of the piece, says she wants her husband “to find a way out.”  His angry reply, morbidly echoing Raskolnikov’s  murder of the old woman pawnbroker in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, is: “Do you Want me to brain her with an axe”?  In scene 2, after sending the woman a false official  letter ordering her “to leave the premises” the woman doesn’t come out of the room and the couple think she was so shocked that “ She” says  the woman “could die and we wouldn’t even know.” At the end of scene 2, “He” recalls that as a boy, he put a hedge-hog  he had caught in a shoe-box and  tied the box with a string. He would talk to it and knock on the  box till it moved and then after a while it stopped moving.  To this, “She” asks: “What are you driving at? Nothing,” “He” replies, “It’s just something I remember.”  But in the play’s present, the elderly woman is the hedgehog, the box, her room.  Then in scene 3, “He” comments, “Too many people in the world.”   “She” seconds his comment adding, “Not even standing room.”

Subsequently, they count the hours that they hear no noise coming from the woman’s room. After 40 hours of silence, “He” knocks and they hear nothing. Eventually, “He” says, “nothing is happening there any more” as was the case with the hedgehog.  Effectively, they conspire not to go into the room until the woman has died. After “He” does and says, “It’s all over,” “She” replies: “We must open the window straight away.” In sum, selfish and merciless, the couple do nothing to help the woman and let her die.  The play would not be recommended by the Kevorkians or Derek Humphrys of the world.

Frank Zapatka 11.30.11

 ---

posted by Richard M.

#### Frank Zapatka on McInerny's "The Search Committee"
Here is another post by Frank Zapatka (Emeritus, American U). Here Frank comments on passages in one of Ralph McInerny's novels.

The late Ralph McInerny (Philosophy, Notre Dame) in “The Writing Life”( First Things, 3.2006:) suggested that mystery novels “function as fictional Kleenex—one use and they’re gone” (p. 26). But, I would suggest that his mysteries needn’t be dismissed so readily because of the commentary on contemporary culture he makes in them. Frequently, such commentary concerns the life issues.

 In The Search Committee (Atheneum, 1991), for example, set on the “Fort Elbow” campus of the University of Ohio, reference to abortion and related matters is made in several passages.  Pro-life, Catholic Matt Rogerson, a senior faculty member in the Philosophy department, is a friend of Sylvia Woods, a junior faculty member in the same department. Sylvia “had battled Right-to-Lifers at abortion clinics, she had fought the prudes who tried to stop Student Health from dispensing contraceptives, she was at least fitfully in favor of unilateral disarmament and to hell with the consequences”(71) Later we read, “Why they [she and Matt] got along so well mystified her. He was a repository of outlandish beliefs and practices” (126). She doesn’t understand his “theological beliefs” in the least; moreover, “his moral philosophy, his politics, his attitude towards everything that really mattered to her, well, he was outrageous all around. And it now turned out that he was actually opposed to contraceptives.” She exclaims, “Matt!”/ “I’ve shocked you.”/ “you’re not serious, are you?”/….”Matt, kids are going to do it.  You claim you’re against abortion.”/“Claim?”/ “Okay, you’re against abortion. So you ought to be against unwanted children.”/“Non sequitur, my dear. I am against sexual activity on the part of those who are   unprepared to accept it for what it is.”/”And what is it?/ A way of making babies. The way the species is preserved.”/My God.”/ That is not a theory, Sylvia it is simple fact” (p.128). (I doubt that Mcinerny would limit “sexual activity” within marriage to procreation or that he would not accept Blessed John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body”).

A little later, the narrator, presenting something of Sylvia’s views and understanding of Matt, tells us: “What you had to grant Rogerson was consistency. If extramarital sex was wrong, then it was wrong of Student Health to pass out contraceptives. Only an idiot would deny that was an acceptance of extramarital sex. Do it but don’t get pregnant, that was the message. But kids kept on getting pregnant and Student Health also made abortion referrals. Meaning they did everything but set up the appointment. That way a girl wasn’t trapped by her mistake, by a baby, by her partner of the moment. Rogerson scoffed at calling this responsible”(pp. 128-129).

Although, The Search Committee is an atypical McInerny mystery in the sense that it is not a “Father Dowling mystery,” nor an “Andrew Broom mystery” nor one of the thirteen mysteries “set at the University of Notre Dame,” The passages discussed appear to be typical of McInerny’s commentary on life issues as he embodies them in his mysteries in general.

Frank Zapatka

posted by Richard M.

#### Frank Zapatka post on a mystery by Ralph McInerny
As we get ready for our upcoming University Faculty for Life conference at Notre Dame, it seemed appropriate to post this comment by Frank Zapatka on one of Ralph McInerny's Notre Dame mysteries.

Here is Frank's comment--

Ralph McInerny’s Lack of the Irish (1998)

Lack of the Irish (1998), the second of McInerny’s thirteen  mysteries set at Notre Dame, revolves around a Baylor--Notre Dame football game. As in several of his mysteries, reference is made to abortion. The Reverend Edwina Marciniak, pastor of the Independent Protestant Church of Jesus Christ and His Almighty Parent…in downtown South Bend (IPC) “had followed the newspaper reports of the coming clash…with mounting irascibility.” A very lapsed Catholic, she had founded the IPC as a “faith worthy of feminism” (12). In an effort to enlist the support of the Reverend Webster Stone, pastor of Hope Baptist, she calls on him with a question. Before she poses it, we’re told his colleagues would kid him on occasion, suggesting he was “soft on Rome…. “Next thing you’ll be using incense,” they would say, or ask him “What’s this I hear about vestments at Hope Baptist?  Such…tactics were not worthy of response.  On other matters, perhaps, Webster was vulnerable to the charge of being soft on Rome, on matters of pro-life, but then all these kidders would agree with him there” (132).

“What do the Baptist pastors intend to do about the game Baylor has scheduled with Notre Dame,” the Reverend Marciniak then asks the Reverend Stone.  “Go to it, madam,” and “Cheer on old Baylor….Edwina let out an anguished cry and collapsed into a chair” (132-133).  Toward the end of the visit, Webster “felt an overwhelming desire not only to respond to this woman but to shock her….As far as that goes, the Roman Church has stood rock firm on the matter of abortion.  I am not alone in admiring their valiant pope for speaking Christian truth when all around it is being mocked.  I have come to think that we should take more seriously what they say about contraception. The Catholics are our powerful allies in the defense of family values.” Edwina, whose particular animus was to Catholicism, after hearing some more shocking words, “staggered to her feet….[and] fled” (136).

Frank Z.

 ----

posted by Richard M.

#### Frank Zapatka post on another mystery by Ralph McInerny
Courtesy of Frank Zapatka, here is a commentary on Ralph McInerny’s The Prudence of the Flesh. 

 The Prudence of the Flesh (2006), the 25th of Ralph McInerny’s 26 “Father Dowling Myster[ies]” is another of several  of his mysteries in which the life issues are involved. In this one, the relevant passages are paraphrased and quoted in the following paragraphs.

 Gregory Barrett, a laicized Catholic priest, has a successful literary program called End Notes on a “tax-funded liberal network,” i.e. National Public Radio (1). Among the authors he discussed on his program were Chesterton, Philip Roth and Paul Claudel.

 Madelaine Murphy, one of his many listeners, however, had “recently been led to remember” that he had “abused her years ago, before” he was laicized (90). In fact, he had not abused her at all; rather, he had counseled her to give birth to the child she had become pregnant with. The identity of the child’s father, she was uncertain of.  We’re told that “In some momentary haze of warmth and pain” at a sorority party when she was in college, “she had given herself to someone” (74). Nevertheless, in the novel’s present time she tells others that Barrett is the father of her child Marvin, now a grown man.

The narrator also tells us that “The advice she was given at Student Health was lofty and moralizing. She could not responsibly bear the child. Nor need she. Relief was just an operation away. Whence came her resistance to this compelling counsel? Her whole being,” the narrator tells us further, “revolted at the idea. Mingled with her shame,” he continues “was the wonder that within her a new life was forming” (75).

It is at this point that she seeks the advice of a priest and receives it from “a young assistant, Father Gregory Barrett” at “a church several blocks away,” who shows her “compassion in her time of need…balm to her soul.”  Subsequently, “he… arranged for her to have her baby”(95). “No good deed goes unpunished [?]”  Eventually, however, Madelaine’s accusations are found to be baseless.

 -----

Richard M.

#### Freedom of Choice in Abortion Insurance (as posted in First Things blog)
Freedom of Choice in Abortion Insurance
Tuesday, December 7, 2010, 12:15 PM
Guest

Some readers will recall that I recently argued in favor of keeping more or less the current federal healthcare insurance plan, provided that it be amended fully to exclude abortion and euthanasia, and to protect conscience. My reason was that heathcare insurance in the private market has shown a long-term tendency toward a culture of death. So we may need to keep healthcare insurance public in order for the pro-life majority in this nation to be able to shape it to protect the vulnerable.

Some of my pro-life friends have disagreed with me, sometimes out of a well-founded fear for their own well-being and that of their dear ones. Basically, they make a strong argument against putting all our eggs in one basket, for if we fail in our pro-life remaking of federal public healthcare insurance, we may well be left without any alternative (because the public plan will probably make escape to the market difficult or impossible). Better to leave a way out for ourselves and some others, they reason, rather than to take a chance on losing a fight to save everyone.

So here’s another idea to consider, one that all pro-lifers (I hope!) could support: Let’s stop thinking only about stopping tax-funding for abortion. Let’s make our goal, instead, to make sure no one is ever forced to subsidize anyone else’s abortion unless they make a deliberate choice to do so. Taxpayers, of course, should not be compelled to underwrite abortion.

But our fellow citizens should also not have to pay for abortions via required insurance fees, regardless of whether those fees are demanded by federal law or simply by the rules of private insurers. Only individuals who choose to pay an additional insurance rider for abortion coverage (costing at least some minimal amount) should ever have abortion in their healthcare insurance plans. That way, no one opposed to abortion will ever end up helping to pay for it.

And here’s a bonus: By insisting that people ask for abortion coverage in advance, we promote calm and cool moral deliberation about abortion, i.e truly thoughtful choice, rather than (as now) letting them run away from thinking about abortion until they face a crisis pregnancy and then often no longer have the peace of mind to reason the matter through and choose well.

The above legislation seems to me useful regardless of what happens to “Obamacare”. It might be called “The Freedom of Choice in Abortion Insurance” act.

Richard Stith is professor of law at Valparaiso University School of Law and the author most recently of The Legal Validation of Sexual Relationships (Wm. S. Hein & Co.).

#### From Abortion to Infanticide: The Gosnell Case--A Symposium
The Fall Symposium of the University of St. Thomas School of Law Journal of Law and Public Policy Fall Symposium will be "From Abortion to Infanticide: The Gosnell Trial" It will be held Friday, October 4th from 8:45 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
A number of arguments have been made attempting to mitigate the fallout from the Gosnell trial, claiming that Gosnell is an outlier, women were driven to Gosnell by a lack of public funding, over-regulation drove Gosnell underground, over-regulation reduced the availability of responsible clinics, enforcement of regulations will reduce abortion access, etc. Some have even argued the moral defensibility of infanticide. We have asked a number of scholars and legal professionals to address these issues.

Speakers Include:

	Prof. Stephen Smith, Notre Dame Law School; Criminal Law
	Prof. Michael Paulsen, University of St. Thomas School of Law; Constitutional Law
	Mr. Steve Aden, Senior Counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom and Vice President of ADF’s Center for Life
	Prof. Randy Beck, University of Georgia Law; Constitutional Law, Property
	Prof. Teresa Collett, University of St. Thomas School of Law; Property, Constitutional Litigation
	Dr. Maureen Condic, University of Utah School of Medicine; Neurobiology, Anatomy, Pediatrics, Director for Human Embryology in the School of Medicine’s curriculum
	Prof. Dwight Duncan, University of Massachusetts School of Law; Constitutional Law, Bioethics
	Prof. Matthew Lu, University of St. Thomas, Professor of Philosophy; Bioethics, Ethical Theory

Schedule
8:45 a.m. -- Continental Breakfast
9:00 a.m. – Introduction, Professor Delahunty
9:15 a.m. – Professor Stephen Smith, on criminal law issues and trial recap
10:00 a.m. – Professor Michael Paulsen, “Kermit Gosnell and Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
10:25 a.m. – Break
10:40 a.m. – Mr. Steve Aden, The Economics of Abortion
11:25 a.m. – Professor Randy Beck, The “Bad Man” Theory of the Law
12:00 p.m. – Reflection Period (Mass in Chapel)
12:30 p.m. – Lunch with Murphy Institute, Hot Topics Cool Talk, Erika Bachiochi, "Is Abortion Necessary for Sexual Equality?"
1:40 p.m. – Professor Teresa Collett, Regulation of RU-486
2:30 p.m. – Panel, “Perspectives on Human Life,” Dr. Maureen Condic, Professor Dwight Duncan, and Professor Matthew LU
4:00 p.m. – Closing
RSVP to Mardell Presler at pres4718@stthomas.edu
CLE credit is pending

This event is organized by the University of St. Thomas School of Law's Journal of Law and Public Policy. The mission of this Journal is to advance the ideals embodied in the mission statement of The University of St. Thomas School of Law through the exploration of conservative legal thought, public policy and social justice.

#### From this week's edition of Peace & Life Connections
Consistent Life Board Member at Chilean University
 
        Richard Stith, a law professor, is a member of the advisory board of the Doctoral Program in Law, University of the Andes in Chile.  Other professors there knew he was a consistent-life advocate, so questioned him about the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Dr. Stith, who is fluent in Spanish, answered in a moving defense of the rule of law, here translated: “it was an example of illegal violence. Bin Laden was not even armed when he was killed. This is not the best way to show the United States to be a civilized nation, nor an exemplary way to combat illegal attacks on life. 
        “Frankly, we have had the wrong approach ever since the original twin tower assault in 2001. Al Qaeda made clear that it was destroying human life in order to defend Muslim faith and civilization. The evil here lies in Al Qaeda's means, not in its ends. There is nothing wrong with people wanting to protect Islam and Islamic civilization against what they see as world capitalism's exportation of Western decadence. But the means chosen cannot include violence, particularly violence intentionally directed against non-combatants, i.e. terrorism. 
        “Tragically, the U.S. treated Al Qaeda's end rather than its means as illegitimate, for America itself turned to violence to protect our ability to export our economy and our Western values around the world, which we called protecting ‘freedom.’ In so doing, we failed to focus on the most important issue at stake, the sanctity of human life. This is the issue around which we could and should have rallied the world.”
 
∞     ∞     ∞
 
Quotation of the Week
Faye Wattleton, then President of Planned Parenthood
Donahue, May 15, 1989, Transcript #3288 NBC
 

"Women are not stupid ... women have always known that there was a life there."  

Peace & Life Connections
Issue #69 07.22.11
A subscription button and past issues with an index are available at www.consistent-life.org/weekly.html.

#### G. Annas "Assisted Reproduction - Canada's Supreme Court and the "Global Baby"
The August 4 issue of New England Journal of Medicine contains an article by Prof. George Annas entitled Assisted Reproduction - Canada's Supreme Court and the "Global Baby".  He adopts the phrase "global baby" from a Wall Street Journal article found here about the growth of human surrogacy as an international trade. Prof. Annas notes the difficulty of regulating assisted reproduction at the national or local level, and observes that attempts to use international law often suffer from a lack of enforcement mechanisms.  He summarizes an opinion of the Canadian Supreme Court in Attorney General of Canada v. Attorney General of Quebec, 410 N.R. 199, 2010 SCC 61 (2010), which deals primarily with the question of whether Canada’s federal government has the constitutional authority to regulate the practice of reproductive medicine and medical research.  The Court split 4-4-1, with a majority finding that the federal government could regulate some aspects of reproductive medicine.

Prof. Annas articulates the implications of the Canadian opinion this way:

"The Canadian experience illustrates the multifaceted barriers to regulating assisted human reproduction. Perhaps existing legal regulatory mechanisms, rather than medical ethics and professional standards, are incapable of performing this task. Currently, however, international ethical norms are inadequate to set practice standards for reproductive tourism or to keep pace with the reach of modern communications. Trafficking in babies can (and probably will) get worse.20 Governments should consistently categorize assisted reproduction as the practice of medicine, and physicians should set and follow high ethical standards to protect the health and welfare of women and children. If the medical community cannot control assisted reproductive procedures that require the application of medical skills, an unregulated market will determine the price, place, and manner in which human sperm, ova, embryos, and services of surrogate mothers will be made available as well as how family relationships with the resulting babies will be structured. The “global baby” has arrived in practice, but neither legal theory nor medical ethics has kept pace with the globalization of human reproduction."

With the drive to obtain international treaties and interpretation of existing international law creating and promoting a right to abortion, prolife scholars and lawyers should consider the jurisdictional and substantive limitations on various law making bodies and use those limitations to protect human life.

#### G.E.M. Anscombe Conference at Oxford
One of the great pro-life philosophers of the 20th century was analytic philsoopher G.E.M. Anscombe, of Oxford and Cambridge Universities.  The Anscomber bioethics Centre and Blackfriars Hall at Oxford are sponsoring a conference called "The Moral Philosophy of Elizabeth Anscombe."

It will be held Friday 27th and Saturday 28th September 2013 at St Hugh's College, Oxford where G.E.M. Anscombe studied as an undergraduate.

Speakers include: Christopher Coope, Rev Prof Kevin Flannery SJ, Dr Mary Geach, Rev David Goodill OP, Prof Luke Gormally, Dr Edward Harcourt, Prof David Albert Jones,
Prof Anselm Müller (Anscombe Memorial Lecturer 2013), Dr Matthew O'Brien, Prof Thomas Pink, Prof Duncan Richter, Dr Roger Teichmann, Prof Jose Maria Torralba and
Prof Candace Vogler.

Registration at www.bioethics.org.uk, where you can see the conference pages for the full program, travel information, a call for papers (for graduates/early career
academics) and accommodation details.

#### Geneva Consensus Declaration
Here is a link to a piece by Austin Ruse discussing the Geneva Consensus Declaration. The "Declaration says what pro-lifers have maintained for decades at the UN, that there is no global right to abortion and that abortion cannot be imposed by the UN because abortion is a matter of national sovereignty."

The United States took the lead in developing the Declaration, which has 32 signatories.

#### Georgia and Tennessee Heartbeat Laws Enjoined
Here and here are reports about court cases enjoining the heartbeat laws in Georgia and Tennessee. These decisions are consistent with other court cases dealing with state laws banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detectable

#### Georgia bans abortions based on fetal pain
Here is a Lifenews story on recent developments in Georgia. Georgia is the latest state to enact a ban on abortions to avoid fetal pain. Here is the opening sentence: "Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia delighted pro-life advocates today by signing a law that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the scientific evidence showing unborn children feel pain at least at that point in development, if not sooner."

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/05/01/georgia-gov-deal-signs-fetal-pain-based-abortion-ban/

Richard M.

#### Georgia bans assisted suicide
Georgia has now banned assisted suicide. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/05/01/georgia-bans-assisted-suicide-after-final-exit-network-flouted-law/

Georgia's law banning advertising for assisted suicide had been held unconstitutional by the Georgia Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds. This new law bans the practice of assisted suicide, and according to the Lifenews article, makes Georgia the 39th state with such a criminal prohibition.

Richard M.

#### Georgia fetal pain law challenged
The Georgia ACLU has challenged Georgia's statute prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks to prevent fetal pain. http://www.ajc.com/news/news/lawsuit-attempts-to-block-new-abortion-law/nTKbY/

Here is an earlier post on the passage of the Georgia law.https://dev.uffl.org/2012/05/02/georgia-bans-abortions-based-on-fetal-pain/

Richard M.

#### Georgia Governor Signs Heartbeat Law
On Tuesday May 7, 2019, Georgia's Governor, Brian Kemp,  signed a law banning abortions after an unborn baby's heartbeat is detectable. Here is LifeNews.com story with the details about the new law--"The Living Infants Fairness and Equality Law."

#### Germain Grisez, R.I.P.
Here is a link to a very good essay by John Finnis on Germain Grisez. Grisez passed away on February 1, 2018.

Grisez was a prolific scholar who contributed important work on many topics, including abortion and euthanasia. Here is a link to a comprehensive website (The Way of the Lord Jesus) detailing Grisez's work.

#### German bishops denounce Germany's approval of PDG
Here is a Zenit story on the German Catholic bishops' response to a new German law that gives the go-ahead to the use of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PDG). http://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-33074 The bishops point out the eugenic implications of such usage. "The selection  of a 'healthy' embryo always entails the rejection of 'unhealthy' human embryos--and thus a violation of human dignity."

Richard M.

#### German court approves access to suicide drugs
Here is a link blog post by Alex Schadenberg on this very troubling development in Germany. Schadenberg  explains that this decision opens the door to the legalization of assisted suicide.

Here is his conclusion: "It is very sad how we forget our history and once again give legal power to allow one person to be involved with causing the death of others."

#### Germany and Assisted Suicide
Here is a link to a good article by Michael Cook on a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court in Germany. The decision endorses the legality of assisted suicide. As Cook states, the court "ruled that a law banning suicide with professional assistance was unconstitutional, as it deprived terminally ill patients of 'the right to a self-determined death.'"

#### Gerry Bradley on President Biden and Abortion
Here is a good article by Gerry Bradley from First Things entitled "Biden's Promise to Codify Roe." Bradley explains that the codification of Roe would mean that the reversal of Roe by the US Supreme Court would have very little impact. That's because the conservatives on the Court are likely to continue to take the view that the Constitution is silent on abortion. Bradley closes his article with this assessment: "The leading effect of constitutional conservatism is, tragically, to make certain that if the new Democratic Congress “codifies” Roe, the Supreme Court will have rendered itself helpless to resist it."

#### Gilroy's "Shared Vision": Highly recommended for students and scholars of American political history
Dr. Jane Gilroy documents a significant episode in American political history: the rise of Ellen McCormack, the pro-life feminist candidate for president in 1976.  McCormack received 22 delegate votes in the 1976 Democratic presidential campaign and over 200,000 votes in Democratic primaries across the nation.  The campaign reached nearly 200,000,000 persons through paid television commercials.

Dr. Gilroy's presentation of the McCormack candidacy is factual and never opinionated, as many historical accounts of controversial candidates can be.  She traces the developments of the McCormack campaign and reaction to it from the national Democratic Party in extensive detail.

Students writing research papers on the aspects of feminist involvement in presidential politics or third-party candidates will find this work eminently quotable.  Sources are provided in footnotes, and there are appendices to support claims made throughout the book.  Moreover, scholars of American political history will find that this work fills a serious gap in the study of American politics.  Both students and scholars will find parallels with contemporary political movements in American society, such as the Tea Party movement.

Dr. Gilroy must be congratulated on a fine work of scholarship which has the added quality of being written in language that ordinary persons can not only understand, but enjoy reading.

This review is also available at http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Shared-Vision/Jane-H-Gilroy/e/9781432755065/?itm=1&USRI=jane+gilroy&tabname=custreview#TABS

#### Gingrichs to show new film in Columbus, Ohio 28 January 2011
Attention: History colleagues and students.  Callista and Newt Gingrich will present their film about Pope John Paul II's work in bringing about the demise of the Soviet Union.  Tickets for the Friday, 28 January 2011 event (a fundraiser for the Ohio Right to Life Society) are available at http://anightofhopeandinspiration.weebly.com.

#### Good article by Professor Tom Molony
Here is a link to a good article by Professor Tom Molony (Elon Law). The article is forthcoming in the Florida Law Review.

Here is the abstract---

"The United States Supreme Court dealt a significant blow to abortion opponents in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, but the 2016 ruling did not dampen their resolve. Just days after Texas lost the Hellerstedt battle, the Texas Department of State Health Services (“DSHS”) returned to the fight and proposed regulations requiring healthcare facilities to inter or cremate the remains of aborted and miscarried fetuses. And undeterred by a preliminary injunction entered against those regulations once they became final, the Texas legislature enacted a law with similar effect in June 2017.

The Texas law, however, proved to be good ground for yet another victory for those who advocate choice. Having already found the DSHS regulations wanting, the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas enjoined the new statute, concluding that it was unlikely to survive the undue burden test that the Supreme Court set out in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit now has followed suit with respect to an Indiana law regulating the disposition of fetal remains. But rather than applying Casey’s undue burden test, the appeals court determined that the Indiana statute could not survive even the very deferential rational basis standard of review. Importantly, the decisions of both the Texas district court and the Seventh Circuit conflict with a 1990 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to uphold a Minnesota fetal remains disposition law—in a case tried before Roe v. Wade’s demanding trimester framework gave way to Casey’s more lenient undue burden standard. Thus, three federal courts are now in conflict, and the Supreme Court may need to step in yet again to decide who is right.

Unfortunately, Hellerstedt provides no easy answer to the question of whether fetal remains disposition requirements like those enacted in Texas and Indiana can survive constitutional challenge. The Texas legislation at issue in Hellerstedt purportedly advanced the State’s interest in safeguarding maternal health, and thus one questions how the Hellerstedt Court’s interpretation of Casey’s undue burden standard will apply to abortion regulations that are founded on the State’s interest in protecting potential life. What is certain, though, is that the Hellerstedt Court did not overrule its decision either in Casey or in Gonzales v. Carhart, both of which upheld measures aimed at encouraging a woman to choose childbirth over abortion. This Article thus contends that, when viewed in light of Casey and Gonzales, Hellerstedt’s interpretation of the undue burden test leaves States with a great deal of latitude to regulate abortion in a manner aimed at protecting potential life. As a result, efforts to regulate the method of disposing of fetal remains should pass constitutional muster."

#### good article by Wesley Smith on the bigotry against the disabled
Here is a link to a recent post on Wesley Smith's blog. Smith links to an article he recently published in the Human Life Review on "the unrepentant bigotry" against people with profound disabilities. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/04/18/that-unrepentant-bigotry/ Here are the closing paragraphs of the article:

"Activists and their supporters who struggle against racism and other forms of discriminatory thinking have long understood that the words we use express how we think, which in turn, leads to action being taken--both private and public.  By working to make racist and similar epithets beyond the pale, activists like Martin Luther King understood that better behavior would follow—and so it has.

Yet, there remains in society one group of people who are still mocked, dehumanized, marginalized, castigated, blamed for woes, and subjected to threatened actions that present a clear danger to their lives and futures. If we are to have a truly equal and moral society, if our health care system is to have any chance of caring properly for the least of those among us, to use a Biblical turn of phrase, we need to watch our mouths and cleanse our hearts."

Richard M.

 

#### good column by John Conley in America magazine
Here is a link to a good column by Father John Conley SJ. The column is entitled "Can a Pro-Life Scholar Survive in Academia?" Conley discusses philosopher Stephane Mercier's treatment by a Catholic university (Louvain) in Belgium after Mercier gave a lecture entitled "Against an Alleged Right to Choose Abortion." Please read Father Conley's column for the details. Here is Conley's conclusion: "Once upon a time, academic freedom was a sacred professional privilege. It protected the right of university professors to discuss controversial matters within their field of expertise in the classroom and in print without fear of retribution. No longer, especially if you are a scholar unmasking the culture of death."

#### good column by Richard Doerflinger on infanticide
Here is a link to a good column by Richard Doerflinger on the connections between abortion and infanticide, and the proposed Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Here is his conclusion:
"But now a "Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act" would simply implement what Congress said in 2002: Because the child surviving an abortion is a person, you may not intentionally kill the child, and you must provide the same care as you would for other newborn children of that gestational age. And abortion supporters, with a renewed appreciation for their own logic, are working to defeat it.
Slogans about women controlling their own bodies, a choice to "terminate" unwanted pregnancies, etc., are falling away, so the logic of abortion can be seen for what it is — simply anti-life."

#### Good essay by Arthur Goldberg on Assisted Suicide in US and Canada
Here is a link to a good essay in Public Discourse by Arthur Goldberg on assisted suicide in the US and Canada. In the essay, he discusses a congressional resolution that has been introduced expressing opposition to assisted suicide. Here is his concluding paragraph:

"Because secular humanism is attempting to replace G-d as the final moral arbiter of life and death, it is urgent that we restore the biblical values of America’s founders. We ignore at our peril the universal moral ethics given to us by G-d through the Noahide Code, which were incorporated in our founding documents. These values were recognized on a bipartisan basis as the ethical and moral underpinnings of America. One immediate action that can be taken to support these inalienable rights is to encourage Congress to pass its resolution condemning assisted suicide."

#### good essay by Hadley Arkes
Here is a link to an excellent essay by Hadley Arkes in the May 2017 issue of First Things. The essay is entitled "The Moral Turn" and it is a thought-provoking essay on natural law and the judicial role, with considerable focus on abortion. The essay is definitely well worth reading.

#### good essay by Margaret Somerville on euthanasia and the slippery slope
Here is a very good essay by Margaret Somerville entitled "The euthanasia slippery slope: a failure of memory and imagination."

#### Good Essay by Michael Paulsen On the Essential Pro-Life Argument
Here is a link to a powerful essay in Public Discourse by Michael Stokes Paulsen on the fundamental pro-life argument. As Paulsen states: "it is important to keep one’s eye on the ball: the singular focus of the pro-life position should be on the unique, vulnerable, precious, living human being in the womb who is killed by abortion. Compared to that, nothing else really matters."

#### Good news for researchers in controversial areas
Lifesitenews.com reports here that the University of Texas has found that there was insufficient evidence to investigate research done by Mark Regnerus into the effects of same-sex parenting on children. Regnerus had been accused by LGBT activists of fraudulent research.

If this is evidence of a trend, it bodes well for pro-life researchers, who also may be accused of misconduct in studies in controversial areas. At least some  administrations will stand behind those that conduct research that draws conclusions that run contrary to the received positions of dominant academic culture.

#### good news from Minnesota
Here is an article from the National Right to Life News reporting the good news that a bill to legalize assisted suicide has been withdrawn.

The article reports: "More than two hours of public testimony on S.F. 1880 included 17 physicians, nurses, attorneys, and members of the disability community who warned of the grave dangers assisted suicide poses to vulnerable members of society. At the end of the hearing, lead author Sen. Chris Eaton, DFL-Brooklyn Center, withdrew the bill before committee members could vote. A vote would very likely have killed the bill."

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2016/03/attempt-to-legalize-assisted-suicide-in-minnesota-withdrawn-after-senate-hearing/#.Vuwn3EnmrIU

#### Governor Cuomo signs "most aggressive" abortion law in the country
Here and here are stories from the National Right to Life News and LifeNews.com about developments in New York. The NY legislature passed the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) and on January 22, 2019 Governor Cuomo signed the law. The RHA declares abortion to be a fundamental right and essentially limits all restrictions on abortion.

#### Graphic images in public
One of the perennial debates among pro-life activists is whether to use graphic images of abortion in public. Recently blogger Simcha Fisher weighed in on the National Catholic Register with "Eight Reasons Not to Use Graphic Abortion Images at the March for Life." Responding with the opposing opinion on the Pro-Life Action League web page was Monica Migliorino Miller, with "Why Graphic Images Need to be Displayed."

#### Great News Source on Life Issues Abroad
Marie Smith, wife of Congressman Chris Smith, runs a remarkable organization, the Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues (PNCI). PNCI coordinates efforts among members of democratically-elected legislatures - collectively
known as parliamentarians - to advance respect for the inherent value,  worth,
and inviolable dignity of every human being from fertilization until  
natural death.

The PNCI website offers access to the organization's monthly electronic newsletter and blog.  Examples of recent stories include found on the website include:

Polish Government to Consider Petition to Ban Abortion
Debate over Abortion in Argentina
US Declaration to End Gendercide
EU Ruling on Woman Denied Prenatal Genetic Testing 

Although the postings on the website and blog are sporatic, PNCI often provides information that is difficult to find elsewhere. I highly recommend subscribing to the monthly newsletter for information regarding prolife efforts in other countries.

#### Great profile of Teresa Collett!!!
Here's a link to a great profile of Teresa Collett.

http://www.stthomas.edu/news/the-lone-voice/

#### great University Faculty for Life conference at BYU
Last weekend's University Faculty for Life conference at BYU was a great success. Here is the schedule. http://www.law2.byu.edu/page/categories/marriage_family/past_conferences/jun2012/Program_FINAL.pdf

Lynn Wardle (ably assisted by Francie Jenson and others at BYU) did a wonderful job organizing the conference and providing gracious hospitality. Barbara Freres and Teresa Collett were instrumental in putting the program together.

One (of among many) highlights was the talk by Dr. William May, who received the Smith Award for distinguished contributions to pro-life scholarship. Dr. May spoke on "'Brain Death' and the Debate over Neurogical Criterion as a Valid Way to Determine Whether a Person has really Died." Other highlights included plenary talks by Dr. Maureen Condic, Clarke Forsythe, Stephen Ricks, and Dr. Joseph Stanford.

Next year's conference will be May 31 and June 1, 2013 at the University of San Francisco.

Richard M.

 

#### Greenhouse/Siegel article on Roe v. Wade
Here is a link to my post on the Mirror of Justice blog on a recent article by Linda Greenhouse and Reva Siegel on Roe v. Wade. http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/06/greenhousesiegel-article-on-roe.html The Greenhouse/Siegel article critiques what the authors describe as a "court-centered backlash narrative." Although there is much that I disagree with in the authors' account, I think the article is correct to try to situate the debate over abortion as part of  a larger legal, political, and cultural struggle.

Richard M.

#### Greenpeace pushes EU to restrict stem cell patents
AP reported yesterday that a ruling of the EU's top court severely restricts biotech companies from turning a profit on stem cell patents in which embryos are used.   Surprisingly, the court responded not to religious groups or anti-abortion groups, but to the environmental group Greenpeace.  Greenpeace had challenged a 1997 patent on a technique developed by a German researcher to turn embryonic stem cells into nerve cells.  The basis of the suit is a concern that "patents on plants and animals could lead to monopolies in food production."  Greenpeace spokesman Christoph Then said the lawsuit was "an effort to get a clear, legal definition of what constitutes a living embryo."  Essentially the court objected to any stem cell technique used exclusively for research, saying such use of embryos is "not patentable" and that "the law protects human embryos from any use that could undermine their dignity."   Follow the link for the whole AP story.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/europes-top-court-bans-scientists-from-stem-cell-patents-experts-say-research-will-suffer/2011/10/18/gIQAHFLxtL_story.html

#### Grondelski interview with Jennifer Lahl
UFL member John M. Grondelski (moral theology) recently interviewed Jennifer Lahl about her three documentaries on artificial reproduction, surrogacy, artificial insemination, and egg donation. "Breeders: A Subclass of Women? -- John Grondelski Interviews Jennifer Lahl on Her New Documentary," in Human Life Review, 40:2 (Spring 2014), 105-12.

#### Grondelski on artificial reproductive technology
UFL member John M. Grondelski has written an article, "The Family & Biology: Challenges of the Artificial Reproductive Technologies," in Teologia i moralność (Theology & Morality), 15:1 (2014), 149-65.  The journal is published by the Theology Faculty of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland.

 

#### Guttmacher Institute Updates Summary of US Abortion Laws
The Guttmacher Institute, a research organization started by Planned Parenthood, has updated its annual survey of abortion laws in the United States.  You can view it here.  I occasionally dispute the characterization of a law, but find it to be a good starting point for research.

#### Haas v. Switzerland/ assisted suicide case
Here is a link to a press release from the European Centre for Law and Justice on a recent decision from the European Court of Human Rights on assisted suicide.  http://www.eclj.org/Releases/Read.aspx?GUID=f47f9a82-9459-4a51-9c4d-eb3db0ff3cf3&s=eur The decision rejected the claim of a man who claimed a right to obtain a lethal drug without a prescription, as Swiss law requires.

Here is the conclusion of the release--

"Thus, in spite of the still problematic recognition of a sort of right to suicide, a peculiar an disputable extension of the right to private life, the Court doesn’t endorse the allegations of the applicant according to which the State would have a positive obligation to take measures allowing for a rapid and painless suicide. On the contrary, under Article 2 which guaranteed the right to life, the State must ensure the protection of the life of people under its jurisdiction. Even when assisted suicide is allowed, as in Switzerland, the State must prevent abuse in the use of this faculty because of his obligation to protect life."

Richard M.

#### Hadley Arkes on President Trump's Executive Order
Here is a link to a good essay by Hadley Arkes on President Trump's recent executive order dealing with the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act.

#### Hadley Arkes on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
Here is a link to a good column by Hadley Arkes on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.

#### Hadley Arkes on the Born-Alive Survivors of Abortion Protection Act
Here is a link to an excellent article by Hadley Arkes on the Born-Alive Survivors of Abortion Protection Act. The article traces the history of earlier legislation--the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, in its various versions.

 

#### Hadley Arkes to speak at St. Thomas in St. Paul
The Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas and Students for Human Life are sponsoring a talk on Wed., April 3 by Hadley Arkes, Edward N. Ney Professor in American Institutions at Amherst College, architect of the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, and lifelong pro-life advocate. The title of the talk is "Natural Rights and the Right to Choose." It will be held from 7:00-8:30 p.m. in the South Woulfe Alumni Hall, Anderson Student Center, St. Paul Campus.

#### Hadley Arkes to speak in North Carolina on Roe v Wade Anniversary
Thomas International is sponsoring a pair of talks by Hadley Arkes, Edward N. Ney Professor in American Institutions (Political Science) at Anherst College on Jan. 22.

12:00 p.m., "Natural Law, Abortion, and the Crisis of Conservative Jurisprudence" at the Duke Law School in Durham, NC

8:00 p.m., "The Endgame on Abortion: Where Are We Now?" University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.

For more information, contact Christopher Wolfe at cwolfe@ticenter.net

#### Harvard Law Students for Life
Students at Harvard University Law School have organized into Law Students for Life. Their first event was a talk by Robert George on the humanity and personhood of the embryo.

The discussion was respectful, displaying a diversity of opinions.
This, the willingness to engage a difficult and controversial subject or at least to engage an uncomfortable idea in the spirit of supporting intellectual diversity, is exactly what the group hopes to achieve.  It is integral for prestigious schools such as Harvard Law to cultivate an environment conducive to productive, respectful, and engaging discussion.

#### Hawaii House tables physician-assisted suicide bill
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about a positive development in Hawaii. The Hawaii House tabled a bill that would have allowed physician-assisted suicide. This follows a recent decision by the New Mexico Senate to reject an effort to legalize assisted suicide.

#### Hawaii legalizes assisted suicide
Here is a link to a story on BioEdge about Hawaii's legalization of assisted suicide.

#### health care right to conscience update
Wesley Smith has a good post on the continuing controversy over pharmacists and conscientious objection in the state of Washington. See  http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/08/06/protecting-pharmacist-conscientious-objectors-in-washington/

Washington's law requiring pharmacists to dispense prescriptions, including Plan B contraceptives (the so-called morning after pill), was challenged in federal court. The Ninth Circuit (in Storman's Inc v. Selecky) upheld the constitutionality of the law and rejected the claim that the law interfered with the religious liberty of pharmacists who objected to dispensing the drugs. The case is now back in federal district court in Washington. The parties have asked for a stay while a change in the law is considered that would relax the existing mandate.

In my view, this is precisely the sort of case-by-case accommodation that ought to be sought. I will have more to say about  this approach in my contribution to the forthcoming Ave Maria Law Review symposium on The Future of Rights of Conscience in Health Care. That symposium will feature papers from this conference, which was co-sponsored by UFL, BYU Law School, and Ave Maria School of Law.  http://www.law2.byu.edu/organizations/marriage_family/symposium_on_future_rights.php

Richard M.

#### Healthcare professionals and deliberately delivering death
Here is a link to a good essay by Stephen Heaney. The essay is entitled: "A Proposal for the Healthcare Professions: It's Time to Refuse to Deal in Death." Here is a the quick summary: "The healthcare professions are rightly devoted to the restoration and maintenance of health. Deliberately delivering death is in direct opposition to these goals. For the sake of their profession and those whom they serve, healthcare professionals should refuse to participate in acts that are so utterly incompatible with their profession."

#### Healthcare Reform and Prolife Principles
Ryan Anderson provides a brief review of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare") from the prolife perspective in Protected in Law, Cared for in Life.  His key concerns deal with the Act's apparent inclusion of abortion as healthcare for funding purposes and the failure to include protection of conscience provisions for healthcare providers. The piece is fairly short and worth reading.

#### Healthcare Reform and Utilitarian Ethics
Yuval Levin discusses the two approaches to healthcare reform today in Help the Sick and Reduce the Debt: The Moral Economy of the Health-Care Debate on Public Discourse blog.  He describes the Democratic proposal as one focused on expanding availability of health insurance through government programs, which they argue will reduce costs through bringing greater uniformity to the healthcare delivery system.  Republicans counter that access to healthcare can be enhanced by lowering costs through freeing the healthcare industry from costly compliance with unnecessary government regulation and mandates.  "In other words, the left argues that experts know how to produce efficiency and that centralized control is the best way to empower experts, while the right argues that markets best discover paths to efficiency and that consumer choice and competition offer the best operating strategies for markets. That difference is the essence of the health-care debate."

He expresses great concern that a government-run program of "one size fits all" will deny care to the disabled. "Centralized management of the health-care sector inevitably invites an explicitly utilitarian approach to comparing the worth of different people’s lives as a matter of public policy. Deciding what treatments to cover for which patients involves the government’s determining whose lives are worth living and whose are not. Princeton’s Peter Singer, an unabashed advocate of such public rationing, explained in the New York Times a few years ago that such an approach would, for one thing, require the government to value the lives of the disabled less than those of everyone else—a quadriplegic, for instance, should be valued at roughly half the worth of a healthy active person."

In this way, the cure for the current inequities seems the creation of even more serious disregard for the innate dignity and equality of all human beings.

#### HHS Issues Final Conscience Rule
Here is a link to the HHS news release concerning the final conscience rule protecting the rights of health care entities and individuals

#### HHS Mandate
There are other examples of members contributing to the discussion of the HHS mandate that didn't make it into ProVita.

For example, theologian Peter Colosi from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia wrote these pieces:
July 2, 2012 Crisis Magazine

The HHS Mandate: What Now, In Light of the Supreme Court Ruling? (Part 3 of 3)
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/the-hhs-mandate-what-now-in-light-of-the-supreme-court-ruling
 
June 28, 2012 Crisis Magazine
The HHS Mandate: This is About Contraception (Part 2 of 3)
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/the-hhs-mandate-this-is-about-contraception
 
June 27, 2012 Crisis Magazine
The HHS Mandate: A Question of Religious Freedom or the Life Issues? (Part 1 of 3)
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/the-hhs-mandate-a-question-of-religious-freedom-or-the-life-issues
 
February 23, 2012 Crisis Magazine
False Premises
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/false-premises
 
February 7, 2012 Catholic Exchange
Contraception and the Fight Against the HHS Ruling
http://catholicexchange.com/142703/

If you know of any more examples, send me an e-mail with the links.

#### HHS Mandate court ruling in Oklahoma
According to a National Catholic Register article, A federal judge in Oklahoma has issued an injunction that protects several Catholic organizations, including for-profit ones, from the enforcement of the HHS "contraception" mandate. The plaintiffs used the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as the basis of their suit. The judge affirmed the core ruling in the Hobby Lobby cases that is now being appealed to the Supreme Court, thus giving more precedents for the justices to exempt for-profit companies on religious liberty grounds.

#### Hidden Persuaders
That's the title of a recent article by Fred Barnes in the Weekly Standard. http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/hidden-persuaders_604174.html?nopager=1

The article's subtitle is "The unheralded gains of  the pro-life movement." Barnes describes a series of positive developments: the impact of sonograms, the increasing pro-life sentiment among young people, the rapid increase in pregnancy care centers, etc. At the end of the article, Barnes notes questions about whether these developments augur the demise of Roe v. Wade. He closes with this passage: "But real gains have been achieved by the pro-life movement and many, many lives have been saved—in 2011 alone. And bigger gains are bound to come as more babies are spared the abortionist’s knife."

Richard M.

#### High school essay scholarship contest
Some of you may be involved with high school pro life groups.  If so, you may be interested in the contest being co-sponsored by the Canadian newspaper, The Interim, and by the Niagara Region Right to Life. The Fr. Ted Colleton Scholarship awards $1500, $800, or $500 (Canadian) to the high school junior or senior who writes the best essays on the topic of the application of Hans Christian Anderson's story, "The Emperors New Clothes," to the abortion debate. More details can be found in this LifeSiteNews article.

#### Highlighting a few recent items in the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly
The Spring 2012 NCBQ arrived in yesterday's mail (many academic journals tend to run a few months behind), and I'd like to make brief mention of several things from the previous issue (Winter 2011) and the new one.

	In the Winter 2011 issue there is a review, by Germain Kopaczynski, OFM, of Joseph W. Dellapenna's Dispelling the Myths of Abortion History.
	Also in the Winter 2011 issue, a conversation about the mechanism of action of "Plan B" (the levonorgestrel "emergency contraceptive") continues, with a letter by Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, OP, who has been arguing that the scientific data indicate with 'moral certitude' that "Plan B" affects only fertilization, not implantation.
	The conversation between Martin Rhonheimer and some critics of his 'vital conflicts' theory (which I've mentioned before) continues in both issues. The Winter 2011 issue includes a letter by Rhonheimer responding to an article by Marie A. Anderson et al., who reply in turn to Rhonheimer.  In the same issue is an essay, "Vital Conflicts and Virtue Ethics: A Response to Rev. Martin Rhonheimer," by Benedict M. Guevin, OSB, and an article, "Vital Conflicts and the Catholic Magisterial Tradition," by Kevin L. Flannery, SJ. The Summer 2012 issue includes a letter by Helen Watt responding to an earlier article by Rhonheimer, and a letter by Rhonheimer responding to Guevin.
	Finally, on the topic of organ donation, the Summer 2012 issue contains an essay, "Objections to Donation after Cardiac Death: A Violation of Human Dignity," by Gina M. Sanchez, and an article, "Preserving Totality and Integrity in Donation after Circulatory Determination of Death," by Thomas J. Driscoll Jr.

#### Horatio Robinson Storer, M.D. (1830-1922)
Dr. Frederick Dyer, Ph.D., has created an extensive archive of materials about Horatio Robinson Storer, M.D. (1830-1922), one of the early physicians who crusaded against abortion in the second half of the 19th century. According to the web page, Storer, a Boston physician, was not only instrumental in getting anti-abortion laws on the books in various states (with the cooperation of the AMA), but also was one of the founders of the discipline of gynecology.

There are links to Storer's personal journals, letters, books, articles, the Journal of the Gynecological Society of Boston, which he founded, and others.

Anyone who is interested in the history of abortion and abortion laws in the U.S. should check this one out. http://horatiostorer.net/Home_Page.html

HT David Moberg

#### Hospice Patients Alliance
Colleagues involved in research affecting the terminally ill may be interested in the following initiative.  Jane St. Clair, author of Walk Me to Midnight (Waterford, VA: Capstone Fiction, 2007) writes that the Hospice Patients Alliance “has sent over 500 emails to candidates for Senate and US House of Representatives, asking for their views on assisted suicide and how to protect the medical care of the elderly, handicapped, and terminally ill.”  Scholars pursuing these issues may review the organization either through www.myspace.com/jane_st_clair or www.janestclair.net.

#### hospice resistance to assisted suicide in Oregon
Here is Wesley Smith's evaluation of a study indicating that hospices in Oregon are not participating in assisted suicide.http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/10/13/oregon-hospices-refuse-to-participate-in-physician-prescribed-suicide/ 

Richard M.

#### Hospitals ban elective inductions before 39 weeks
Oregon papers are reporting that all-Portland area hospitals are prohibiting elective inductions and c-sections prior to 39 weeks gestation.    

"[R]esearch has shown that there is significant brain development going on right through 38 weeks. Babies born before 39 weeks of pregnancy are two to three times more likely to be admitted to intensive care as well as have trouble breathing, according to recent studies."
 
A hospital in Vancouver, Wash., studied the problem on its own earlier this year and found that 42 percent of its babies born electively did not meet the criteria for medical exceptions and instituted its own "hard stop" on induced births before 39 weeks without medical need.

Opponents of the Unborn Child Pain Protection Act passed in various states this year often argued that legislators should not pass the Act since it would interfere with elective inductions scheduled at 36 weeks or later. Prolife arguments that such practices were medically suspect are vindicated by the actions of the Portland hospitals.

 Brent Rooney, Research Director, Reduce Preterm Risk Coalition, in Vancouver, Canada, follows the connection between abortion and preterm delivery in subsequent pregnancies. He has identified over 60 studies evidencing the connection.  In Induced Abortion and the Risk of Later Premature Births, he and Dr. Byron Calhoun argued that failure to inform abortion patients of the connection of abortion and preterm births should create liability for failure to adequately inform patients of risks.

#### House committee approves CIANA
Here is a Lifenews story on the House Judiciary Committee vote to approve the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/27/house-panel-oks-bill-to-stop-secret-abortions-on-teenagers/ The Act would make it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines to circumvent a state law requiring parental involvement in the minor's decision to have an abortion.

UPDATE: Here is a link to a recent post of mine on the Mirror of Justice blog. The blog post calls attention to Teresa Collett's recent commentary on CIANA. http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2012/03/teresa-collett-on-ciana.html#tp

Richard M.

#### House Committee passes Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
The House Judiciary Committee passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/06/u-s-house-judiciary-committee-approves-nationwide-protection-for-pain-capable-unborn-children-20-to-12/

The Act would provide protection for unborn children capable of feeling pain, beginning at 20 weeks after fertilization. The full House is expected to take up the bill next week.

Richard M.

#### House hearing on CIANA
Here is a LifeNews story about today's hearing on CIANA (the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act). http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/08/hearing-minor-girls-taken-to-other-states-for-secret-abortions/

Here is a link to commentary on CIANA from Bill Saunders and Mary Harned.http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/08/congress-must-pass-ciana-to-protect-minor-girls-from-abortion/

CIANA, according to Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who has introduced CIANA in each Congress since 2005, would make it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines for the purposes of having an abortion and avoiding the parental involvement laws of the minor’s home state.  

“CIANA is a critical piece of legislation that ensures that parental rights are upheld, while promoting the inherent dignity of the unborn.  The majority of the American people and more than 30 state legislatures have made it clear that parents have the right to know whether their child is trying to undergo an abortion,” Ros-Lehtinen said.

Ros-Lehtinen continued, “At such a vulnerable time in a young girl’s life, she deserves to have the guidance and love of her family.  Minors should not be ferried across state lines by those who would wish to deny parents of their right to be involved in their children’s lives.  I thank Subcommittee Chairman Trent Franks for holding this hearing.  I hope that the House will give this legislation the thoughtful consideration it deserves.”

Here is additional information about the hearing, including the testimony of Teresa Collett (president of University Faculty for Life). http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/Hearings%202012/hear_03082012.html

Richard M.

#### House Passes Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
Here is a story in the National Right to Life News on the October 3, 2017 vote in the US House to pass the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.  As the story describes, "the proposed federal law would generally extend legal protection to unborn humans beginning at 20 weeks fetal age, based on congressional findings that by that point (and even earlier) the unborn child has the capacity to experience great pain during an abortion."

#### House to consider two important pro-life bills
This week, the House will consider two important pro-life bills-- "The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" and the "Protect Life Act." Here is a story from the National Right to Life News. http://www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Feb11/nv020711.html

Richard M.

#### How "Happy Holidays" Hurts
Not directly pro-life, this post is relevant to the issue of how points of view are excluded from the public square for quite unfounded reasons:

Good people are often mystified at the offense taken by many Christians to the salutation “Happy Holidays!” After all, they reason, the word “holidays” includes everyone, instead of excluding anyone, so what’s the problem?

My short response would be that, to the ears of many of us, “Happy Holidays” actually silences all faiths rather than welcoming any of them. In order to explain my point, let’s go back and see what the problem was with “Merry Christmas,” our culture’s traditional December greeting.

As far back as I can remember, Christmas was named and celebrated by people of varied faiths and of no faith at all. No doubt many have just liked the bright lights or the tradition of giving associated with Christmas, but some have surely recognized the irreplaceable gift of Christmas itself to world civilization, in terms not only of art and music but of the radical dignity of the humblest birth.

Unfortunately, some contemporary cultural engineers think that Christmas is tainted by its religious origin and that the best or only way to accommodate the many religions found in today’s America is to reduce them all to their lowest common elements. Since every religion celebrates “holidays” (a word derived from “holy days”), our politically correct mentors tell us that “holidays” are all we may mention. We may not name the specific holiday that each community is celebrating (at least not if that holiday is one celebrated by a majority religion like Christianity).

However, it doesn’t make sense to try to include all religions by excluding every possible reference to any of them. A simpler strategy would be to include by including. This point was brought home in a delightful and profound way in a recent Northwest Indiana Times column by Christine Kraly (“Yes, I said ‘Merry Christmas’”, Dec. 26, 2010). She pointed out that her “Merry Christmas” need not exclude any other greetings. As a Christian about to marry a Hindu, she is also comfortable wishing her in-laws-to-be a “Happy Diwali.” Nor does she take offense when in their exuberance they wish her a “Happy Diwali.” In a multicultural world, we can give one another much joy by sharing our feasts.

By contrast, just repeating “Happy Holidays” is an empty and boring way to live together.  It’s really not multicultural at all; it’s just a flat one-size-fits-all unicultural expression. In rightly rejecting domination by one religion, it rejects the content of all religions. That’s why “Happy Holidays” hurts the feelings of many Christians, while “Happy Diwali” (or “Happy Hanukkah” or “Happy Eid”) does not. “Happy Diwali” gives, while “Happy Holidays” takes away.

Those who have trouble seeing this point might consider how many of us would feel irked if there were pressure to substitute “Happy Holiday” for “Happy Valentine’s Day,” on the ground that St. Valentine was a Christian. Wouldn’t that change be felt widely to be a loss, a flattening? People might even gradually become less likely to give candy or flowers; after all, we don’t do so to commemorate most of what we call “holidays”.

Indeed, the merchants who switch to “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” may be cutting their own throats. Christmas calls for the giving of presents far more than any other holiday. Once we have been trained not to think about “Christmas presents” anymore, our felt need to purchase them may slowly disappear.

                                                   (Guest commentary in The Times of NW Indiana, January 10, 2010)

#### How Long Should We Fund Hospice Care?
John Keown's presentation on palliative care at this year's UFL Conference established the need for the prolife movement to ensure the availability of palliative care.  Hospice care is a critical piece, but a new report questions how long hospice care should be funded by taxpayers. http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/June/27/Growing-Hospice-Care-Brings-Misuse-Concerns.aspx

#### How many abortions will be publicly subsidized under ObamaCare?
The Charlotte Lozier Institute research arm of the Susan B. Anthony List has published a paper, "Multi-State Health Plans a Potential Avenue to Tens of Thousands of Publicly Subsidized Abortions," which estimates that up to 10% of U.S. abortions may be publicly subsidized under ObamaCare. Here is an article on National Review Online by Chuck Donovan, President of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, that summarizes the report

#### How the Court Made Political Compromise Impossible
Randy Beck has just posted a new piece entitled Fueling Controversy on SSRN.  He responds to a recent Yale Law Journal article by Linda Greenhouse and Reva Siegel, Before (and After) Roe v. Wade: New Questions about Backlash, in which they question the received wisdom that the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade generated a political backlash, inflaming conflict over abortion and damaging the political process.  While Professor Beck acknowledges the pre-Roe political conflict over abortion, he points to the multiple drafts of the Roe opinion circulated by Justice Blackmun during consideration of the case.  Each draft became more and more expansive, with the Court ultimately adopting an interpretation of the constitution that prohibited protection of the unborn child any time prior to viability.  Beck argues that the viability rule was a radical expansion of the availability of abortion, "restricting the range of permissible legislative action" and "disabl[ing] legislative bodies from negotiating political compromises like those worked out in other countries." While his conclusions may not be new, Beck's careful review of the opinion drafting process in Roe provides substantial evidence for the argument that the Court improperly and unnecessarily constitutionalized a question that was the subject of active deliberation by the people through their elected representatives.

#### How the face of pro-life advocates is changing
The Public Religion Research Institute published some statistics ("What Will the Next Generation of Anti-Abortion Advocates Look Like? Different.") about the ever-growing pro-life attitude of young Americans, even those who are not Christians.
Of young Americans who oppose abortion, fewer are white Christians* (37 percent) than the nearly 8-in-10 (78 percent) who make up the group of senior Americans who oppose abortion. This includes fewer white evangelical Protestants (16 percent vs. 43 percent), fewer white Catholics (8 percent vs. 20 percent) and roughly the same number of white mainline Protestants (13 percent vs. 15 percent). Among those who oppose abortion, younger Americans are more likely than senior Americans to be Hispanic Catholics (13 percent) or Hispanic Protestants (9 percent) than seniors who oppose abortion (2 percent and 1 percent, respectively).

 

#### How to Limit Adoption Expenses
Many of us have heard that adoption costs "thousands of dollars," causing us to think that many (if not most) families simply can not afford to welcome an unwanted child into their home.  Feminists for Life have a short article, Affordable Adoption, explaining ways to reduce adoption costs to less than $5,000 in many cases.

#### Human Dignity and Supreme Court Jurisprudence
SSRN has a new article entitled The Jurisprudence of Dignity (http://ssrn.com/abstract=1928768).  The author, Leslie Meltzer Henry, identifies the variety of meanings given to the word "dignity" in Supreme Court cases:  institutional status as dignity, liberty as dignity, equality as dignity, personal integrity as dignity, and collective virtue as dignity. The article reveals that the Court’s reliance on dignity is increasing, and the current Supreme Court is accelerating that trend. Professor Henry notes that the more conservative Justices on the Court are now as likely to invoke dignity as their more liberal counterparts.  Understanding how "dignity" is used by various members of the Court is important in thinking about the changes we see in abortion jurisprudence.  The contested nature of the concept of dignity reflects a similar debate occuring in bioethics.

Readers of this blog may be familiar with the report by the President's Bioethics Council, Human Dignity and Bioethics (http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/pcbe/reports/human_dignity/). Professor Steven Pinker attacked the report in his colorfully titled article, The Stupidity of Dignity (http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/The%20Stupidity%20of%20Dignity.htm). UFL member, Frank Beckwith, provided a strong response to Pinker in Dignity has Never Been Photographed (http://homepage.mac.com/francis.beckwith/EM2.pdf).

The jurisprudential and philosophical debate over human dignity signifies two important and foundational questions in both disciplines: 1) How do human beings differ from animals, and 2) What is the moral significance of those differences.  Answering these questions persuasively is key to ensuring the protection of all innocent human beings.

#### Human Life Review articles on the Princeton conference
The Fall 2010 issue of the Human Life Review contains a number of articles on the October 2010 Princeton conference. The article by my good friend Mark Latkovic is particularly good, http://www.humanlifereview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=120:a-tale-of-two-australians&catid=55:2010-fall, as is the article by Wesley Smith, http://www.humanlifereview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=122:infanticide-must-be-combatedcarefully&catid=55:2010-fall 

Richard M.

#### Human Life Review on the Polish Court Decision on Eugenic Abortion
Here is a link to an item in the Human Life Review about the recent decision by the Polish Constitutional Court on eugenic abortion. At the link, there is also a translation of the decision.

#### Human Rights and Medical Abortion
SSRN has posted a new article, Access to Information on Safe Abortion: A Harm Reduction and Human Rights Approach.  According to the abstract the article explores claims that the international norms protecting the right of access to information includes the right to give and receive information for self-administration of misoprostol (RU-486).

The author, Joanna Erdman, is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the  University of Toronto; Co-Director of the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Programme at the University of Toronto; and Director of the Health Equity and Law Clinic.

According to its website, the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Programme seeks to advance rights relating to reproductive and sexual health; promote greater understanding of how laws and policies inhibit the protection and promotion of reproductive and sexual health; and improve collaboration among specialists in law, medicine, health service administration and public health, on development and application of laws and policies to protect and promote reproductive and sexual health.   

The Health Equity and Law Clinic (HEAL Clinic) was established in 2007 within the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Programme. A clinical legal education course, the HEAL Clinic provided upper year and graduate students with an opportunity to explore the role of the law in shaping equitable health policies and practices in domestic, regional and international contexts.

#### Iceland and Down Syndrome
Here is a link to a good article by Alexandra DeSanctis on the recent CBS report that Iceland is leading the world in "eradicating Down syndrome births." Here is the concluding paragraph from the article:
"The title of the CBS piece asks, “What kind of society do you want to live in?” The article’s implicit response seems to be, “One dedicated to eliminating abnormality and suffering by any means necessary.” But no admirable society eradicates suffering by eradicating those who suffer. To achieve true moral progress, we must reject the killing of the vulnerable and condemn any backwards society that promotes such a regime as a solution."

 

#### Idaho law banning abortion to prevent fetal pain challenged in federal court
Here are stories from the National Right to Life News and LifeNews on a lawsuit that has been filed challenging the constitutionality of Idaho's Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which bans abortion after 20 weeks to prevent fetal pain.

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/09/idaho-woman-challenges-unborn-child-pain-protection-act/ and http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/31/first-lawsuit-filed-on-fetal-pain-based-20-week-abortion-ban/

Richard M.

#### Idaho's Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act held unconstitutional
Here is a link to a federal district opinion invalidating Idaho's Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.  http://howappealing.law.com/McCormackVsHearn-DIdaho-030613.pdf

Here is a link to a National Right to Life News story on the decision. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/03/judge-overturns-idahos-pain-capable-unborn-child-protection-act-opening-the-door-to-an-eventual-hearing-before-the-supreme-court/

Richard M.

#### important 4th Circuit argument today
The full United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will be hearing oral argument today in Centro Tepeyac v. Montgomery County. The suit, filed by a crisis pregnancy center, challenges a Montgomery County law that forces such centers to notify women that the centers do not have a medical professional on staff and encouraging women to consult a licesnsed medical professional.   The suit argues that such compelled speech violates the First Amendment.  The crisis pregnancy centers have won the earlier court battles but in August 2012 the full 4th Circuit agreed to re-hear the case.

Mark Rienzi, a law professor form Catholic University, will be arguing the case for the crisis pregnancy centers. From a LifeNews.com article, here is a comment on the case from Matt Bowman:“Pro-life centers provide women with the emotional support and practical resources they need, giving them more choices. They should be free to share that message instead of being compelled to provide the government’s preferred message, which sends women elsewhere. The 4th Circuit panel was right to rule against Montgomery County’s law, and we trust the full court will agree.”http://www.lifenews.com/2012/12/05/appeals-court-to-hear-battle-over-law-silencing-pregnancy-centers/

Richard M.

 

 

#### Important Alabama Supreme Court decision on IVF
Here is a link to an excellent essay by Ryan Anderson on the Alabama Supreme Court decision on IVF. The decision strongly affirms the status of the unborn.

Here is a bit from the essay--

"the Alabama civil (not criminal) case was brought by the parents of IVF children, not opponents of IVF. The clinic keeping their embryonic children in cryopreservation had not provided adequate protection, so a patient managed to wander in and remove several embryos, causing their deaths. The parents sued to hold the clinic accountable for the wrongful death of their children. And the Alabama Supreme Court held that a statute protecting minors (including, as precedent held, embryos in the womb) contained no exception for embryos outside the womb. Far from attempting to ban IVF, the parents who brought this lawsuit were trying to protect frozen embryonic children, and rightly so."

Here is a link to a Lifenews article with a link to the opinion.

#### important decisions from the 4th Circuit in crisis pregnancy center cases
Yesterday, the 4th Circuit ruled (in 2-1 decisions) on 2 cases involving laws that compelled crisis pregnancy centers to engage in certain speech. Here are links to the decisions.  http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/111111.P.pdf and  http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/111314.P.pdf

The court held that the compelled speech ordinances violated the First Amendement rights of the centers.  Among other things, the ordinances required the centers to post signs stating that the centers did not provide or make referrals for abortion or birth control services. The court held that the speech that was compelled was non-commercial and that accordingly the ordinances had to meet the highest standard of review (strict scrutiny) and that the ordinances could not satisfy that standard.

These are important decisions that preserve the freedom of crisis pregnancy centers to counsel women in the way they choose, without having to convey a governmentally-mandate message.

Richard M.

 

#### Important Ruling from European Court on Euthanasia
Here is a link to a report from ADF International about an important ruling from the European Court of Human Rights.

"In a major case on the right to life, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of Tom Mortier, son of Godelieva de Troyer, who died by lethal injection in 2012, aged 64. Her euthanasia was conducted on the basis of a diagnosis of “incurable depression”. In the case of Mortier v. Belgium, the Court found that Belgium violated the European Convention on Human Rights when it failed to properly examine the alarming circumstances leading to her euthanasia."

Here is a comment from Robert Clarke, deputy director of ADF International:

"It is unfortunate that the Court dismissed the challenge to the Belgian legal framework; however, the takeaway is that the ‘safeguards’ touted as offering protection to vulnerable people should trigger more caution toward euthanasia in Europe, and the world. The reality is that there are no ‘safeguards’ that can mitigate the dangers of the practice once it is legal. Nothing can bring back Tom’s mother, but we hope this decision offers Tom some small measure of justice.”

#### Important series on major issues for 2012 election
Today Public Discourse introduced a ten-part series examining the ten key issues that should shape voters' decisions in the 2012 election. Ryan T. Anderson explains the structure of the series in “Liberty, Justice, and the Common Good:Political Principles for 2012 and Beyond.” I suspect almost all of the essays will interest UFL members. 

Here is the list of authors and schedule of topics to be considered.
 
Mon., Aug. 22 - O. Carter Snead, “Protect the Weak and Vulnerable: The Primacy of the Life Issue”

Tues., Aug. 23 - Maggie Gallagher, “Defend Marriage: Moms and Dads Matter”

Wed., Aug. 24 - Samuel Gregg, “Fix America’s Economy: Two Principles for Reform”

Thurs., Aug. 25 - Ed Whelan, “Defend our Laws: Justice Matters”

Fri., Aug. 26 - Jennifer Bryson, “Promote Democracy: Start at Home but Don’t Stay at Home”
 
Mon., Aug. 29 - Helen Alvaré, “Uphold Conscience Protection: Religious Freedom’s Contribution to the American Experience and Threats to its Survival”

Tues., Aug. 30 - Yuval Levin, “Heal the Sick and Reduce the Debt: The Moral Economy of the Healthcare Debate”

Wed., Aug. 31 - Jane Robbins, “Empower Parents: Return Educational Policy to the States”

Thurs., Sept. 1 - Patrick Trueman, “End Child Pornography: Enforce Adult Pornography Laws”

Fri., Sept. 2 - Laura Lederer, “End Human Trafficking: A Contemporary Slavery”
 
*           Robert P. George, Post-Debate Reflections

#### important withdrawal of treatment case in England
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about an important case in England. The British take on the case can be found here.

The Bland case (1993) authorized English courts to allow the withdrawal of artifically provided food and water from patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). A copy of the House of Lords' opinion in Bland can be found here. The current case, which is now being heard in the Court of Protection, argues for an extension of this principle to patients who are not in a PVS. The patient in the current case--M--is in a "minimally conscious state." If the court allows the withdrawal of treatment in the M case, then the door will be open to the withdrawal of treatment in many more cases.

Richard M.

#### In Response to Belgium's Legalization of Euthanasia for Children: the iron logic of euthanasia
Once each person is no longer taken as an unquestionable given, eventually everyone will have to show that he/she has a life of net positive value (is justified in living) in order for it to be thought reasonable for him/her to go on living.
And there is no reason to think that his/her net value will be measured only against the (let us assume) zero value of death; it will be measured against the value that would be generated if the resources now being used to feed and clothe the person at issue were devoted instead to other, perhaps more useful, human beings (or animals, for that matter).

This is how we think today with regard to animal husbandry. It's simple economic rationality. Once the "taboo" against killing humans is gone, it will be the iron logic of euthanasia for us, too.

#### increasing challenges to Roe v. Wade
Here is a link (below) to a Washington Post story about the increasing number of laws that states have passed restricting abortion. The article focuses on Nebraska's law banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy to prevent fetal pain. The article notes that the US Supreme Court's 2007 decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, in which the Court upheld the federal ban on partial birth abortion, has encouraged states to test the limits the Court has imposed on restricting abortion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/27/AR2010122703379_pf.html

Richard M.

#### Increasing Withdrawal of Care from Newborns
The July issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine contains an article entitled, How Infants Die in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.  The authors' abstract describe the results of a ten year study this way:

For 10 years, 414 neonatal patients died. Of these, 61.6% had care withdrawn, 20.8% had care withheld, and 17.6% received cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The percentage of deaths that followed withholding of treatment rose by 1% per year (P = .01). Most of this change was accounted for by withholding of therapy in the very premature group. During the 10-year period, the primary mode of death in this regional referral neonatal intensive care unit was withdrawal of life-sustaining support. When death is imminent or medical care is considered futile, the approach is thought to provide a peaceful, controlled setting. Significant increase in withholding of care suggests improved recognition of medical futility and desire to provide a peaceful death. 

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2011;165(7):630-634. doi:10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.102

#### India's Terri Schiavo case?
On the European Life Network blog, Pat Buckley has an interesting post about a case in India that raises some of the same issues presented in the Terri Schiavo case. http://europeanlifenetwork.blogspot.com/2011/02/could-this-be-indias-terry-schiavo-case.html

The case involves Aruna Shanbaug who has been seriously disabled since 1973. One interesting twist is that the effort to have Ms. Shanbaug's feeding halted comes from a writer who has written a book about Ms. Shanbaug. The writer contends that Aruna's quality of life falls below that guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.  The Indian Supreme Court has ordered a 3 member panel to examine Aruna's condition.

The hospital [KEM]has opposed the effort to halt Aruna's feeding. According to an article in The Independent on the case: 

"Officials at KEM have denounced ...[the writer's] claims, insisting Ms Shanbaug is not in as dire a condition as the writer suggests. Dr Sanjay Oak, the dean of KEM, told Mumbai's DNA newspaper: 'She means a lot to KEM. She is on a liquid diet and loves listening to music. We have never subjected her to intravenous food or fed her via a tube. When those looking after her do not have a problem, I don't understand why a party who has nothing to do with her needs to worry.' He added: 'We have no moral right to terminate her life. I am against euthanasia for Shanbaug.' "

Richard M.

#### Indian study shows abortion/breast cancer link
A recent study in the Indian Journal of Cancer indicates that abortion correlates with a a 6.2 fold higher risk of breast cancer, according to this National Catholic Register article. The Register article also notes this meta-analysis in the Cancer Causes Control journal which shows the link between induced abortion and breast cancer among Chinese women. The study concludes: "IA is significantly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer among Chinese females, and the risk of breast cancer increases as the number of IA increases. If IA were to be confirmed as a risk factor for breast cancer, high rates of IA in China may contribute to increasing breast cancer rates."

#### Indiana AG will appeal decision invalidating ban on abortions of babies with Down Syndrome
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the latest developments in the Indiana litigation. Indiana passed the Dignity for the Unborn Act in 2016. That statute prohibited abortions due to disability, sex, or race, and also required that the remains of aborted babies be disposed of in a dignified manner. The Indiana law was held unconstitutional on September 22, 2017 by a federal district court judge in Indiana.  Curtis Hill, Indiana's Attorney General, has announced that the state will appeal the ruling.

#### Indiana asks Supreme Court to hear abortion case
Here is a link to a LifeNews.com story about the state of Indiana's filing with the United States Supreme Court asking the Court to review a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decision striking down Indiana's abortion statute. The statute prohibits abortion due to the sex, race, or disability of the unborn baby.  The Indiana statute also requires the humane disposal of fetal remains.

There has been widespread speculation that the newly-constituted Court might agree to hear an abortion case in the near future. We won't know for several months whether the Court will agree to hear the Indiana case.

#### Infanticide article
This article concerns infanticide, the killing of the newborn, which some in academia are advocating

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/10/21/it-takes-a-long-time-to-starve-a-severely-disabled-infant-to-death-by-withdrawing-medically-supplied-nutrition/

Thanks to the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network for this information.

#### Infanticide Impunity in the Name of Abortion Rights
Here is a link to a good article by Ligia De Jesus Castaldi about the 17+ Women in El Salvador. The women have been imprisoned for criminal homicide of their own biological children shortly after birth. As Castaldi demonstrates and the abstract of her article summarizes, "American pro-abortion supporters, Western embassies and international human-rights bodies have taken part in the war against El Salvador's full ban on elective abortion by supporting a fraudulent campaign that promotes impunity for infanticide n that country."

Here is her concluding paragraph:

"If anything, the macabre proposal to tolerate infanticide, in the name of abortion rights, has shown the world the infanticidal logic of abortion and a darker side of the international pro-abortion movement, which seems to be radicalizing to previously unimaginable lengths. The treatment of abortion and infanticide as equivalents, on the part of pro-abortion organizations involved in this litigation, is obviously meant to deceive the public; but it also seems to be based on equal disregard for the life of the unborn and the newly born child. The argument that gender alone justifies the deliberate killing of one’s own child in both situations is also very telling. It seems to confirm what pro-lifers have known all along, namely, that abortion and infanticide are not that different after all."

#### Infanticide in Brazil
Persons interested in examining the issue of infanticide (the killing of newborn children) in Brazil can visit www.vimeo.com/forlife. This site includes the documentary “Breaking the Silence” (in which Brazilian Indians from many tribes speak out against infanticide), another short movie “Acaua-The Right to Life,” and “Infanticide Account by Kamiru” (a narrative of a child saved from being buried alive). “Breaking the Silence” is directed by the indigenous journalist Sandra Terena.

#### Infanticide or Murder? Canada's shifting answer
What is the proper legal response to a mother killing her infant child? In Desperate Measures: Rationalizing the Crime of Infanticide, Canadian law professor Isabel Grant examines the crime of infanticide and issues of statutory interpretation that are currently before the Canadian courts. "The article examines the recent trend towards charging women who kill their newly born children with murder, rather than infanticide, and the resulting judicial development of a defence of infanticide. While the article raises concerns about treating infanticide as a defence, it may be a necessary response to the tendency towards overcharging murder in cases where infanticide is a more appropriate verdict."  Professor Grant argues that treating infanticide as a lesser included crime within murder acknowledges the unique role of women in pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing in our society and the reality faced by women who may be young, poor, socially isolated, or mentally ill and find themselves in desperate circumstances.

#### Information on Pro-life Library collections needed
Jeff Koloze is looking for information on libraries that specialize in pro-life collections (500+ items. If you have any information on such a collection, send it to the address below:

Dr. Jeff Koloze
President, Koloze Consultants
10019 Granger Road
Garfield Heights, Ohio 44125-3101
216-262-3511
LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dr-jeff-koloze/22/555/b37

#### Interesting chart of abortion laws
Abortion-rights supporters have created an interesting visual illustration of states' laws on abortion over at Remapping the Debate. The interesting thing about the chart is the ability of readers to adjust the weight given to particular abortion regulations in ranking states on how abortion regulations impact women.  For example we know from a variety of sources that large majorities of Americans support partial-birth abortion bans and  parental involvement laws, while fewer Americans support restrictions on insurance coverage.  On pages 2 and 3 of the blog post, readers can weigh various laws.  This features makes an otherwise clearly biased chart much more interesting.

#### interesting essay on abortion and judicial conservatism
On Public Discourse, here is the first part of a two-part essay by Michael Fragoso entitled "Abortion and the Courts: A Brief Political History of Judicial Conservatism."  http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/08/6088

Fragoso takes issue with the view that presidential elections don't matter because judges appointed by Republican presidents have been, from the perspective of the pro-life movement, "at best--part of the problem  and--at worst--the heart of the problem."

Update:

Here is the link to the second part. This part is entitled "Abortion and the Courts: Judicial Nominations are Imperfect but Matter." Fragoso closes with this obsrevation: "The fact is that the Republican Party’s commitment to judicial conservatism over the past thirty years has, as a matter of principle, favored and will continue to favor the pro-life movement. Because the fight to reorient the courts has been long and imperfect, it is all the more important that those committed to a culture of life see it through, especially now that it is finally creating real openings for authentic pro-life policy." http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/08/6086

Richard M.

#### Interesting Michael Paulsen essay
Here is a link to an interesting essay by Michael Paulsen entitled, "Passover, Abortion, and Rabbi Ruth Bader Ginsburg."

 

#### International Abortion Conference -- PEI
The University of Prince Edward Island is hosting a major international abortion promotion conference, Abortion: the Unfinished Revolution, August 7-8. The program gives an idea of what pro-abortion academics are working on these days.

#### International Center on Law, Life, Faith and Family
The International Center on Law, Life, Faith and Family (ICOLF) has established new web site which features "a broad range of resources and materials for a number of interested parties working on 'Law, life, faith and family' issues on the national, regional and international levels."

Contributors include:

	Helen Alvaré
	Ryan T. Anderson
	Teresa Collette
	Ursula Cristina Basset
	Carmen Domínguez Hidalgo
	Robert Fastiggi
	Maria Hildingsson
	Gudrun Kugler
	John Klink
	Marguerite Peters
	Grégor Puppnick
	Elizabeth Schiltz
	Marie Smith
	Aleksander Stępkowski
	Vincenzo Vitale

HT Teresa Collett.

#### International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics Conscientious objection
If you are researching conscientious objection, you might want to look at the December 2013 issue of the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics to see the thought of those who are trying to keep conscientious objection from affecting the availability of abortion. You may want to check your institutions databases to see if you can get free access. Here are some of the articles:
Editorial

Conscientious objection to the provision of reproductive healthcare

Conscientious Objection

Conscientious objection and refusal to provide reproductive healthcare: A White Paper examining prevalence, health consequences, and policy responses

Conscientious objection or fear of social stigma and unawareness of ethical obligations

Conscientious objection to provision of legal abortion care

Legal and ethical standards for protecting women's human rights and the practice of conscientious objection in reproductive healthcare settings

#### International Law and the Right to Life
Here is a link to John Keown's review of Rita Joseph's book "Human Rights and the Unborn Child." http://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/247662/international-human-rights-law-and-unborn-child-john-keown Here is a link to the book.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9004175601/ref=nosim/nationalreviewon

As Professor Keown points out, advocates of abortion rights have been trying to develop a recognition of a right to abortion in international law. (See the article by Richard Wilkins and Jacob Reynolds on this effort. http://www.uffl.org/vol15/wilkins05.pdf)  As the review states, "Joseph argues cogently and clearly that an unborn child's right to life is far more plausibly grounded in ...[international human rights law] than is the right to abortion."

Richard M.

#### Interpreting Scientific Studies
For us lay people who might be easily misled by journalists' claims about scientific studies, here is some advice from Dr. Alex B. Berezow of the RealClearScience web page, "20 Tips for Analyzing Claims of a Scientific Study." It is a summary of a Nature article by William J. Sutherland, David Spiegelhalter and Mark A. Burgman called "Twenty Tips for Interpreting Scientific Claims," 503: 335-337, 21-Nov-2013, doi:10.1038/503335a. Berezow adds a 21st tip: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence!"

HT Teresa Collett

#### Interview about Dr. Jerome Lejeune
Here is an interview by Peter Jesserer Smith in The National Catholic Register with Aude Dugast, who is working for the canonization (declaration of sainthood) in the Catholic Church of Dr. Jerome Lejeune, who discovered the genetic cause of Down's Syndrom and who was an advisor for University Faculty for Life until his death in 1994. Lejeune's choice to defend the unborn Down's Syndrome babies against abortion cost him his career as the preeminent genetic biologist.

#### Interview about pro-life pioneer Dr. Horatio Storer
Psychologist and UFL member Frederick Dyer was recently interviewed on the Aleteia web page about Dr. Horatio Storer, he 19th century physician who promoted anti-abortion legislation. The article is called, "You're Alive Today Because of This 19th Century Doctor." There are links to books and articles by Dyer, as well as these 19th century AMA articles which condemn "therapeutic" abortion.

#### Interview with Father Miscamble CSC
The Mirror of Justice blog highlights an interview with Father Miscamble here. In the interview, Father Miscamble discusses (among other things) various pro-life initiatives at Notre Dame. The actual interview can be found here.

Richard M.

#### interview with Richard Doerflinger on assisted suicide and euthanasia
Here is a link to a good interview with Richard Doerflinger on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.

#### Iowa Supreme Court recognizes wrongful birth tort
Here is link to a LifeNews.com article on a June 2, 2017 decision by the Iowa Supreme Court recognizing a tort for wrongful birth. Wrongful birth claims are claims by parents of a disabled child who argue that but for the negligence of a doctor (in, for example, failing to notify the parent that her child would be born with birth defects)  they would have aborted the child. Many states (about half the states in the US) recognize wrongful birth claims. In contrast, far fewer states recognize so-called wrongful life claims, which are brought by the child who claims that but for the wrongful conduct of the defendant the child would have never been born (because her parents would have had an abortion).

Here is a link to an article ("Statutory Responses to 'Wrongful Birth' and 'Wrongful Life" Actions") by William Duncan discussing these torts. Here is a link to another article ("The Disabling Impact of Wrongful Birth and Wrongful Life Actions") arguing, from a disability rights perspective, that these torts ought not to be recognized.

 

#### Iowa Supreme Court Says There is No Fundamental Right to Abortion
Here is a link to a story from the National Right to Life News about today's decision from the Iowa Supreme Court. In a 2018 case, the Iowa Supreme Court found a fundamental right to an abortion in its state constitution. The Court has saw overruled that decision.

If the US Supreme Court overrules Roe and Casey, state constitutions will become more significant in the battle over abortion. This ruling from the Iowa Supreme Court is likely to prove important as these battles play out in state courts.

#### Iowa's Governor Signs Heartbeat Law
Here is a link to a LifeNews.com story about Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signing a law that prohibits abortions after the unborn baby has a detectable heartbeat.

#### IPPF tells us how to talk about abortion
Here is a 32-page booklet from the International Planned Parenthood Federation called "How to Talk About Abortion: A Guide to Rights-based Messaging." I found the sections on what language to use and not to use and what images to use and not to use fascinating. They take euphemism to the next level.

This is also interesting:

"LANGUAGE NOTE In several places, this guide refers to ‘women’ who have abortions. Although the vast majority of abortions globally are provided to individuals who identify as ‘women’, IPPF acknowledges that other people who do not identify as ‘women’ (such as trans men/trans masculine people and non-binary people) can also experience pregnancy and abortion."

#### Irish Vote Removes Protection for the Unborn
On May 26, 2018 Irish voters removed the 8th Amendment to the Irish Constitution, which protected the right to life of the unborn. The Irish Parliament is now expected to pass legislation legalizing abortion. Here is a link to a LifeNews story and here is a link to commentary from The Catholic Thing.

#### Is Ruth Bader Ginsburg Getting Mellow in Her Old Age?
Over on the Human Life Review blog, John M. Grondelski, former associate dean of the School of Theology, at Seton Hall University poses the question Is Ruth Bader Ginsburg Getting Mellow in Her Old Age?  His comments accord with those of UFL member Sam Calhoun in his presentation critiquing the Siegel-Greenhouse book, Before Roe v. Wade.

#### Italy Moves Toward Euthanasia Ban
Michael Cook at Bioedge reports on Italian efforts to ban assisted suicide and euthanasia here.  The legislation would also require provision of artificially administered food and hydration when needed.

#### Jack Kevorkian Dies in Hospital at 83
Here is the LifeNews story on the death of Jack Kevorkian. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/03/assisted-suicide-crusader-jack-kevorkian-dies-in-hospital/

Kevorkian killed more than 100 people through assisted suicide. He was convicted for the killing of Thomas  Youk and spent years in prison before being released in 2007. He was a deeply troubled man who was sympathetically treated by the media for many years.

Here is a link to Wesley Smith's commentary. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/06/03/kevorkian-death-reflections/

Richard M.

#### Jane Gilroy's book on Ellen McCormack
Here is the Amazon link to Jane Gilroy's new book entitled "A Shared Vision: The 1976 Ellen McCormack Presidential Campaign." http://www.amazon.com/Shared-Vision-McCormack-Presidential-Campaign/dp/1432755064/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280603411&sr=8-3

Jane presented some of this story at the 2005 UFL conference. Here is a link to her paper from the 2005 conference.  http://www.uffl.org/vol15/gilroy05.pdf

Jane, who was the vice-chair of McCormack's campaign committee, is uniquely qualified to tell the story of the McCormack campaign, which is an important event in the history of the pro-life movement. Jane  is a long-time UFL member and the president of UFL's Long Island chapter.

Richard M.

#### Jeanne Head's comment on UN procedures
Here is a link to commentary by Jeanne Head of National Right to Life on the UN procedures that have been used in recent years. These procedures, which depart significantly from procedures used in the past, undermine national sovereignty and transparency. The new procedures are quite troublesome to the pro-life/pro-family coalition.http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/06/recent-un-procedures-undermine-sovereignty-and-transparency-worry-pro-lifepro-family-coalition/#more-2627

Richard M.

#### Jeff Koloze on Debbie Garratt's New Book
Here is a comment from Jeff Koloze about Debbie Garratt's new book (the book is entitled "Alarmist Gatekeeping: Abortion"):

"Abortion activists would appreciate this feminist perspective on the topic, which focuses on deceptive communication strategies, efforts to censor diversity of thought, and ways to empower women considering the abortion choice."

#### Jerome LeJeune article
There was an article in the July-August Celebrate Life Magazine by Barbara Curtiss about Jerome LeJeune, genetic researcher, former UFL Advisory Board member and candidate for canonization in the Catholic Church, whom we highlighted in the July 2012 issue of ProVita. LeJeune was an indefatigable promoter of the culture of life. After discovering the gene anomaly that leads to Down's Syndrome, LeJeune spent his life  seeking a cure and trying to promote the dignity of those affected with the condition. "Though a scientist, Dr. Lejeune was first and foremost a godly man who understood that science must be at the service of life—not death. Since the only hope for saving lives would be to find a cure for genetic intelligence disabilities, Dr. Lejeune devoted the rest of his life to this purpose." LeJeune spoke out against abortion, which was more and more being touted as the response to a diagnosis of Down's Syndrome.  "For the rest of his life, Dr. Lejeune would also speak out against abortion—which put him at odds with the elite scientific community, threatened to disrupt his family life, and probably deprived him of the Nobel Prize he deserved."

#### Jerome Lejeune: Servant of God and Deceased UFL Advisory Board Member
Here is a post from Frank Zapatka about Dr. Jerome Lejeune, the great pro-lfe champion--

A ceremony and Mass marking the completion of the diocesan investigation of the Beatification and Sainthood Cause of the Servant of God, Jerome Lejeune (1926-1994) was celebrated on April 11, 2012 in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. His Cause had been opened on June 28, 2007 by Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris.

 

Jerome Lejeune was a member of the UFL Advisory board and was a featured speaker at

the 1992 UFL conference, Life and Learning II held at Georgetown University

 

An indefatigable pro-life champion, he was a Medical Doctor, a Doctor of Science and an internationally recognized geneticist who in 1958 discovered the chromosomal abnormality that causes Down syndrome (trisomy 21). For this discovery, President Kennedy in 1962 presented him with the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation Award in Mental Retardation.   In 1969, he received from the American Society of Human Genetics, the most prestigious award in the world in genetics, the William Allan Memorial Award.  He was the first Professor of Fundamental Genetics at the University of Paris Medical School, and taught at the California Institute of Technology. He held memberships in several academic and professional organizations such as the Pontifical Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of Medicine (London), and the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of the Institut de France. 

 

He died on Easter Sunday, April 3 1994. The next day, Blessed John Paul II, a personal friend, wrote to the late Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, Jean Marie Lustiger, describing  Lejeune as “an ardent defender of life….[a] Great Christian of the 20th century, a man for whom the defense of life became an apostolate.”  In the same letter, John Paul II also called attention to Lejeune’s important role in the founding of the Pontifical Academy for Life and for his serving as its first president (Quoted in April 11, 2012 program for the completion of diocesan investigation).

 

In the United States in addition to speaking at our conference, he testified before congressional committees and in several American court cases. In May 2004, William Colliton M.D., one of our earliest members, wrote of him: “The right to life movement has lost a mighty warrior. No blazing fire or blaring trumpets accompanied him into battle. He approached the fray with a gentleness and humility that were consuming. His greatest weapon was an intellectual acuity that delivered the truth with telling force. His Christ-like demeanor in no way hampered his effectiveness” (UFL Pro Vita: May 1994, p.2).

 Frank Zapatka

#### Jewish Pro-Life Foundation
Colleagues who need information about Judaism’s view on the life issue of abortion may find the website of the Jewish Pro-life Federation helpful: http://web.me.com/tomcecilysam/Jewish_Pro-Life_Foundation/Home.html.

#### John Breen's Critique of Linda Greenhouse's Argument that Pro-Life Laws Violate the Establishment Clause
Here is a link to an excellent post by John Breen. Breen's post critiques a recent piece in the New York Times by Linda Greenhouse arguing that pro-life laws violate the Establishment Clause. This argument was also made by the Justice Stevens, who passed away yesterday at the age of 99. Here is a link to a short article of mine critiquing Stevens' view.

Here is the conclusion of Breen's post--

"In the end, Greenhouse’s op-ed (like Stevens’ opinions in Thornburgh and Webster) is founded on the mere accusation of religious establishment.  She points to a policy position with which she disagrees (a position supported by some overtly religious people) and then cries “Establishment Clause!”  This is not the music of constitutional argument, but the shrill voice of someone desperate to hold on to power.

Archibald Cox once said of brief writing that “a good brief marches, and a great brief marches and sings.”  The claim that pro-life legal measures violate the Establishment Clause stumbles and wails because those who employ it never demonstrate the religiosity of the laws they would strike down.  This tired, old song should come to an end."

#### John Finnis on the moral status of the unborn child
Rick Garnett's recent post ( http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2010/10/john-finnis-on-the-moral-status-of-the-unborn-child.html#tp) on the Mirror of Justice blog, refers to the remarks of John Finnis at the recent Princeton conference. Here is a link to Finnis's remarks,  http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/10/1849 , which are well worth reading.

Richard M.

#### John Keown on "Euthanasia, Ethics, and Public Policy," 2d Edition
I wanted to call attention to the recent publication of the second edition of "Euthanasia, Ethics, and Public Policy: An Argument Against Legalisation."  The first edition of this book was published in 2002. That book made a compelling case against the legalization of voluntary active euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. It did so be emphasizing the slippery slope arguments against legalization. He addressed the logical slippery slope argument--the idea that quality of life exceptions to the prohibition against intentional killing can't be contained. He also addressed the empirical slippery slope argument--the idea that procedural safeguards in jurisdictions (e.g., the Netherlands, Belgium, Oregon) allowing assisted suicide or euthanasia cannot and do not effectively control the practices.

Much has happened since 2002 and the second edition updates the earlier analysis by focusing on the more recent experiences in jurisdictions that have legalized these practices. His analysis, which is marked by a keen understanding of both the legal developments and the actual practice of voluntary euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, further illustrates the force of both the logical and empirical arguments against legalization.

Keown's second edition deserves a wide readership.

#### John Keown on the Link between Voluntary and Non-Voluntary Euthanasia
Here is a link to an excellent paper by John Keown, which was recently published in the Cambridge Law Journal.

The paper is entitled "The Logical Link Between Voluntary and Non-Voluntary Euthanasia."

Here is the abstract--

"The logical "slippery slope" argument is of key relevance to the ongoing debate about "assisted dying". The argument runs that if the principle of respect for autonomy and the principle of beneficence justify voluntary euthanasia, then the principle of beneficence justifies non-voluntary euthanasia. Several prominent scholars of biomedical ethics and law have either rejected or at least not accepted the argument. This paper analyses their reasoning and finds it wanting. It concludes that the logical argument stands unrebutted and merits much greater attention."

#### John Noonan, R.I.P.
Here is an obituary for Judge John Noonan Jr. from the New York Times. John Noonan was a great advocate for the pro-life cause. In an article I wrote some years ago, I noted that Noonan had written with eloquence about the dignity of the human person and about the need for natural law to be part of the enterprise of human law. He closed one of his articles on abortion with the hope that the Supreme Court "might ...perceive the reality of the extraordinary beauty of each human being put to death in the name of the abortion liberty and concealed from legal recognition by a jurisprudence that substitutes a judge's fiat for the truth."

Here is a link to my earlier article on Judge Noonan.

 

#### Join Us June 6-7 in New York for the 2014 "Life and Learning Conference"
The Board has confirmed that the 2014 "Life and Learning XXIV Conference" at Fordham University's Rose Hill campus in Bronx, NY.  Mark your calendars now to join us June 6-7 in the Big Apple!  More details will be posted on our website and blog as they develop.

#### Joseph Bottum's analysis of the Gosnell arraignment
Here is Joseph Bottum's analysis of the Gosnell arraignment. Bottum explains that these revelations shouldn't really have been a surprise. As Bottum writes--

"Ever since the Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, ending states’ power to outlaw abortion and making it instead an individual right, abortion has distorted American law and snarled American politics. Why should it be any surprise that it has soiled American medicine as well? People like Dr. Gosnell are allowed to exist by the pro-abortion lobbying groups that insist ordinary medical supervision will lead to a curtailing of access to abortion in this country. " 

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/live-and-die-philadelphia_537628.html

Richard M.

#### Judge Blocks Alabama Abortion Law
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on a decision from a federal district court judge blocking enforcement of an Alabama abortion law that would have banned most abortions. The ruling was not unexpected. Alabama plans to appeal the ruling. A story on courthousenews.com detailed the reaction of Alabama's Attorney General:

"Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, said in a statement that the judge’s order was not unexpected and the state’s goal is to bring the case to the Supreme Court in order to strike at the heart of the precedents establishing the right to abortion.

“We intend to submit evidence that supports our argument that Roe and Casey were wrongly decided and that the Constitution does not prohibit states from protecting unborn children from abortion,” Marshall said, referring to the landmark abortion cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey."

#### Judge Blocks Arkansas Pro-Life Laws
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on a July 23, 2019 decision by a federal judge in Arkansas. The pro-life laws would have prevented abortions after 18 weeks (with a few exceptions), prevented abortions when the sole reason for obtaining the abortion was that the unborn baby had been diagnosed with Down Syndrome, and required that the doctors performing abortions be board certified OB-GYNs.

#### Judge Blocks Ohio Law Banning Abortions of Unborn Babies with Down Syndrome
Here is a link to LifeNews.com story on a March 14, 2018 decision by a federal judge in Ohio enjoining Ohio's law banning abortions of unborn babies with Down syndrome. The case, Preterm-Cleveland v. Himes, indicates how extreme the US law is on abortion. The Ohio federal judge interpreted the Supreme Court's cases (Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey) as authorizing abortion on demand. According to the judge, the state can't second guess a pregnant woman's decision to have an abortion. Interestingly, the opinion refers to the unborn as a "child."

#### Judge Invalidates Mississippi Law Banning Abortions After 15 Weeks
Here is a link to a LifeNews.com story about a recent decision by a federal judge invalidating Mississippi's ban on abortions after 15 weeks. The judge noted that if it wants to overturn Roe v. Wade then the state will "have to seek that relief from a higher court." It seems likely that the state of Mississippi will try to do just that.

Judge Carlton Reeves's opinion is almost beyond belief. Under existing law, his ruling is not a surprise. But the opinion contains some rather stunning observations. I'll mention just one such observation. Judge Reeves seems to accept Justice Blackmun's view that history demonstrates that there was a historical recognition of the right to an abortion. This historical account is deeply flawed, as many scholars have made clear. Despite Justice Blackmun's efforts to argue to the contrary, John Keown's scholarship makes clear that "Roe's invention of a constitutional right to abortion represented a radical rejection of America's longstanding history and traditions."

 

#### Judge refuses to enjoin Missouri's admitting privileges law
Here is a link to a National Right to Life News story about a recent decision by a federal judge in Missouri refusing to enjoin Missouri's admitting privileges law.

#### Judge Thapar on Roe and Casey
Here  is a link to recent (September 10, 2021) opinion of the Sixth Circuit enjoining two provisions of Tennessee law. One provision banned abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected and the other banned abortions when the doctor performing the abortion knows that the pregnant woman is seeking the abortion because of the race or sex of the baby or because of a prenatal diagnosis that the baby might have Down syndrome.

Judge Thapar concurred in the court's ruling on the first provision, after making it clear that his vote was because of the Supreme Court's erroneous decisions in Roe and Casey. Judge Thapar dissented from the court's judgment that the discrimination provision was void for vagueness.

Here is Judge Thapar's conclusion: "The argument that the Constitution contains a right to abortion has neither [a page of history nor a volume of logic]. As shown above, the historical evidence is clear. The Constitution leaves decisions like this to the states. The state legislatures can do what we can’t: listen to the community, create fact-specific rules with appropriate exceptions, gather more evidence, and update their laws if things don’t work properly. And if the public is unhappy, it can fight back at the ballot box. The courts should return this choice to the American people—where it belongs."

Here is a link to  a good article by Carrie Severino commending Judge Thapar's opinion.  Here is a link to a good post by Ed Whelan to the same effect.

#### July ProVita available!
The July edition of the ProVita Online Newsletter of UFL is now available! It includes:

	A recap of the 2013 conference in San Francisco,
	An essay on the academic discipline of history and pro-life scholarship by Keith Cassidy,
	Information about the 2014 conference at Fordham in the Bronx,
	News and and recent scholarship about UFL members,
	Upcoming conferences, symposia, and other events of interest,
	Details on recent scholarship in many fields on issues relevant to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia.

#### July ProVita Newsletter now available
A new edition of the ProVita Online Newsletter for UFL is now available on the UFL web page. Also available are past issues of ProVita.

ProVita not only has news about UFL and its members, but also scholarly resources and opportunities for pro-life faculty. Note, some of the scholarly opportunities have a deadline in the next week.

Also, if you have any items to contribute to the next edition, you can send them to Robert Gotcher, the editor of ProVita. His contact information is at the end of the newsletter.

Categories include: UFL news, members' accomplishments, calls for papers, conferences and symposia, new pro-life scholarship, other scholarship relevant to pro-life research (e.g., from non-pro-life sources), useful web pages, etc.

We will also be looking for someone to write an essay about how to engage in your discipline from a pro-life perspective. If you feel inspired to write such an essay, let the editor know.

#### Justice Brennan's Legacy
Here is a link to an interesting piece by Gregory Sullivan entitled "William Brennan and the Creation of a Right to Abortion." http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/12/1993

Sullivan's discusses the new, long-awaited biography of Justice William Brennan. http://www.amazon.com/Justice-Brennan-Champion-Seth-Stern/dp/0547149255 Sullivan notes in particular Brennan's key role in the development of the right to privacy that provided the basis for Roe v. Wade.

Richard M.

#### Justice Ginsburg and abortion
With the death of Justice Ginsburg and the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, there has been much speculation about the potential for a change on the Court with regard to abortion. For a good essay exploring some of these issues, see the essay by Rita Joseph entitled "Justice Ginsburg's brilliant career marred by monumental error."

Here is a link to the essay.

#### Justice Ginsburg: Roe moved too far too fast
Here is an AP story noting Justice Ginsburg's comments (which she has expressed in the past) that Roe v. Wade "moved too far too fast." After noting that the Court had other options to adopting the sweeping approach it took in Roe V. Wade, Justice Ginsburg commented: "The court made a decision that made every abortion law in the country invalid, even the most liberal," Ginsburg said. "We'll never know whether I'm right or wrong ... things might have turned out differently if the court had been more restrained."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GINSBURG_WOMENS_RIGHTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Richard M.

#### Justice Thomas rejects stare decisis
Here is a link to today's Supreme Court decision in Gamble v. United States. In Gamble, the Court decided not to overturn the dual sovereignty doctrine. Pursuant to that doctrine, it does not violate the double jeopardy clause if a state prosecutes a defendant under state law even if the federal government has already prosecuted the defendant for the same conduct under a federal statute.

Justice Thomas wrote an intriguing concurring opinion in which he rejected the use of stare decisis to avoid overturning demonstrably erroneous precedents. As an example of such rulings, Thomas mentioned the Court's substantive due process decisions, and explicitly cited the Court's abortion decisions as an example of an area where the Court "has doggedly adhered to these erroneous substantive-due-process precedents again and again, often to disastrous ends." Although no other Justice joined his concurrence, Thomas's opinion will likely fuel speculation about the possible reversal of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

 

#### Justin Dyer on the Fake Abortion History of Roe v. Wade
Here is a link to a good essay in Public Discourse by Justin Dyer. Pro-lifers know that Justice Blackmun's opinion in Roe v. Wade relied upon a terribly mistaken history of abortion. Blackmun's historical account has been refuted so many times that it is somewhat surprising that the same arguments are being made on the abortion rights side in briefs presented to the Supreme Court in Dobbs.

In his essay, Dyer explores this issue in detail. He concludes his treatment with this paragraph:

"The law office history that buttressed Justice Blackmun’s opinion in Roe v. Wade was wrong at the time and it is wrong today. That remains true, even if the two leading organizations of professional historians have shamelessly signed on, yet again, to the project of constructing a fictional abortion history that will advance what elite academic opinion deemed long ago to be the proper ideological goals."

#### Kaczor's New Book
Chris Kaczor, professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, recently published A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience (University of Notre Dame Press, 2013) as part of the Notre Dame Studies in Medical Ethics series.

The book addresses beginning- and end-of-life issues in light of the concept of "dignity." "Kaczor investigates whether each human being has intrinsic dignity and whether the very concept of 'dignity' has a useful place in contemporary ethical debates." Specific issue addressed include: ectopic pregnancy, the possibility of “rescuing” human embryos with human wombs or artificial wombs, physician-assisted suicide, provision of food and water to patients in a persistent vegetative state, how to proceed with organ donation following death. and conscience exceptions for  health care professionals.

#### Kansas Supreme Court recognizes Right to Abortion under State Constitution
Here is a link to an opinion by the Kansas Supreme Court recognizing a right to abortion under the state Constitution. The Court struck down the Kansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, which was passed in 2015.

This is an important ruling because the opinion means that the right to abortion would still be protected in Kansas even if the US Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

 

#### Kathyrn Jean Lopez on Father Koterski SJ
Here is a link to a moving tribute to Father Koterski by Kathryn Jean Lopez. In her remembrance, Lopez quotes Mother Agnes Mary Donovan who stated: “'I have never met anyone so generous—in his thought, in his person, in giving of himself to anyone and everyone,' Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, S.V., the mother superior of the Sisters of Life, reflected after learning of the death of Joseph Koterski, S.J."

#### Kentucky passes law banning abortions due to sex, race, or disability of the unborn
Here and here are stories from LifeNews and the National Right to Life News about this development in Kentucky. On March 19, 2019, Governor Matt Bevin signed the law banning abortions if a reason for the abortion is the sex, race, or disability of the unborn baby. This law is similar to the Indiana law that was held unconstitutional. Indiana has asked the US Supreme Court to review the case and the state's petition is still pending before the Court.

The new Kentucky has already been challenged in federal court in Kentucky.

 

#### Kentucky's "Ultrasound Informed Consent Act" upheld by federal court
Here is a link to an opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upholding the constitutionality of Kentucky's "Ultrasound Informed Consent Act." The opinion was issued on April 4, 2019; the vote was 2-1 in favor of the law. The Kentucky law requires a doctor who is preparing to perform an abortion to play the sound of the fetal heartbeat and to display and describe an ultrasound to the women seeking an abortion.  The court held that these requirements do not violate the doctor's First Amendment rights. The statute simply requires the disclosure of truthful, non-misleading, and relevant information and therefore does not violate the doctor's right to free speech.

 

 

#### Klick's economics studies of the negative effects of abortion are worth consulting
The economics literature over the past 15 years has shown significant downsides of abortion for women, yet it remains largely unknown and uncited by pro-life scholars and lawyers. The work of University of Pennsylvania law and economics professor Jonathan Klick (individually and with others) is particularly well regarded and worth consulting. Consider, for example, his Mandatory Waiting Periods for Abortions and Female Mental Health, 16(1) HEALTH MATRIX: JOURNAL OF LAW-MEDICINE 183-208 (2006). Arguing that female suicide rates are a good demographic-level proxy for women’s mental heath, Klick shows that there is a “statistically and practically significant drop in the suicide rate when states adopt waiting periods,” and so concludes that “waiting periods do improve mental health among females.” He adds that the effect is robust and apparently causal. (He does consider alternative explanations but finds them less likely.) Online see http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/hmax16&div=12&g_sent=1&collection=journals or http://law.cwru.edu/StudentLife/organizations/healthmatrix/files/7%2016.1%20klick.pdf . On SSRN, it can be found at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=821304##

Also worthwhile are the recent installments in the continuing studies by Klick and Thomas Stratmann of how unlimited abortion leads to more “risky sex” (referring to sex acts that risk pregnancy and disease): Abortion Access and Risky Sex Among Teens: Parental Involvement Laws and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 24(1) JOURNAL OF LAW, ECONOMICS, & ORGANIZATION 2-21 (2006). It’s found on SSRN at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=819304. See also their 2009 paper The Effect of Abortion Liberalization on Sexual Behavior: International Evidence (with Sven Neelsen), U of Penn Law School, Public Law Research Paper No. 09-20.

#### Koloze writes on feminist misinterpretation of American novels
Jeff Koloze's article, "Challenging Feminist Literary Criticism's Misreading of Specific American Novels From the First Half of the Twentieth Century," was published in Humanities and Social Science Review 5:2 .
This paper responds to specific questions raised in the author’s previous research on five American novels from the first half of the twentieth century which concern sexuality, abortion, and male-female relationships: Pearl Doles Bell's Gloria Gray, Love Pirate (1914); Floyd Dell's Janet March (1923); Viña Delmar’s Bad Girl (1928); Christopher Morley's Kitty Foyle (1939); and Nancy Hale's The Prodigal Women (1942). The paper concludes that interpretations of the characters’ religious, moral, and sexual lives from a standard feminist perspective are insufficient to account for the works’ larger didactic purposes. Moreover, the paper asserts that an application of the more comprehensive JudeoChristian approach to sexuality and related topics would assist twenty-first century readers to appreciate the works.

 
 

#### Komen Foundation and abortion
That the Komen Foundation supports abortion groups like Planned Parenthood is well-known among many.  Colleagues may be interested to view recent research into donations from Komen to Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion group in the United States.  See http://www.lifenews.com/nat6765.html.

Responses from pro-life academics are  imperative at this time of year, when students and faculty feel compelled to donate to the Komen Foundation.

#### Korean pro-life professors group founded
Here is an encouraging story about the founding of the Pro-life Professors' Association in Korea.  http://www.cathnewsindia.com/2011/01/20/korean-professors-form-anti-abortion-group/#

Richard M.

#### Kurt Pritzl, O.P., RIP
Father Kurt Pritzl, O.P., died yesterday after a battle with cancer. Father Pritzl was the Dean of the School of Philosophy at Catholic University. He was a member of University Faculty for Life and a gracious host for the 2010 annual meeting of University Faculty for Life. His passing is a loss to the Church and to the pro-life cause. Please say a prayer for the repose of his soul.

See http://publicaffairs.cua.edu/releases/2011/PritzlPassing.cfm

http://thomistica.net/news/2011/2/22/fr-kurt-j-pritzl-op-february-15-1952-february-21-2011.html

http://www.catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=14420

Richard M.

#### Latest Gallup poll on abortion
Here is a link to a story about the latest Gallup poll on abortion. The results are largely unchanged from prior years. While Americans are becoming more liberal on other social issues, this poll indicates that the pro-life movement has been successful in its educational efforts. A majority of Americans support restricting abortion in all or most circumstances.

#### Latin American Conference on Reproductive Rights
The Second Latin American Conference on Reproductive Rights, which will take place on November 28th, 29th and 30th in Costa Rica, is a forum created for the Latin American legal community to gather for dialogue, debate and deliberate around issues and dilemmas that work to protect reproductive rights more effectively in the region. This second Congress seeks to continue the academic focus on reproductive rights which originated with the first Latin American Legal Conference on Reproductive Rights, which took place in 2009 in Arequipa, Peru. 

The 2nd Conference is being organized by the Inter American Institute for Human Rights and the Costa Rican Bar Association. Both institutions represent the defense and promotion of human rights in Costa Rica, and in the case of the Inter American Institute for Human Rights, at the Latin American level.

As academics, it is important to understand all sides of the argument.

#### Law blog post on fetal personhood
Today seems to be the day to consider the legal status of the unborn - first the Nebraska law suit and now this post over on Prawfsblawg, Why Does it Matter if a Fetus is a Person?  

I think Professor Horwitz's analysis is rather simplistic in his claims that fetal personhood decides the question of whether a general prohibition could or should include exceptions for rape/incest or threat to the mother's life.  It is possible that a legislature and/or court could adopt the position articulated by Justice Rehquist in Deshaney v. Winnebago County, "As a general matter, then, we conclude that a State's failure to protect an individual against private violence simply does not constitute a violation of the Due Process Clause."  (Chilling, isn't it? Especially for those of us to thought the first obligation of government was to secure the peace.)  

Even if that position is too radical, it is not unreasonable to distinguish pregnancies resulting from rape/incest as falling within the general American position that the is no duty to rescue or render aid to a stranger, while pregnancies resulting from voluntary sex (including those from intentionally but unsuccessfully contracepted sex) as being within the general rule that the person creating the hazard to another has a duty to rescue or in this case continue the pregnancy until the child live outside the womb.  

As for life of the mother, it seems very clear to me that a legislature could take the position that the government should not choose between the lives of two citizens and leave that rare case in the realm of private decisionmaking.

#### Law, Religion, and American Healthcare conference at Harvard
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS AND REGISTRATION NOW OPEN: 2015 Annual Conference
Law, Religion, and American Healthcare

May 8 - 9, 2015
Conferences
2014-2015
Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East BC
1585 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA
The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School is pleased to announce plans for our 2015 annual conference, this year entitled: “Law, Religion, and American Health Care.”
Conference Description
Religion and medicine have historically gone hand in hand, but increasingly have come into conflict in the U.S. as health care has become both more secular and more heavily regulated.  Law has a dual role here, simultaneously generating conflict between religion and health care, for example through new coverage mandates or legally permissible medical interventions that violate religious norms, while also acting as a tool for religious accommodation and protection of conscience.
This conference, and anticipated edited volume, will aim to: (1) identify the various ways in which law intersects with religion and health care in the United States; (2) understand the role of law in creating or mediating conflict between religion and health care; and (3) explore potential legal solutions to allow religion and health care to simultaneously flourish in a culturally diverse nation.
Call for Abstracts
We welcome submissions on both broad conceptual questions and more specific policy issues.  Potential topics might include:

	Analysis of the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and other federal, state, and local legal provisions that come into play at the intersection between religion and health care
	The Affordable Care Act and employer-based health care coverage, including the contraceptives mandate and related court decisions
	Legal obligations and accommodations of religious health care organizations
	Protection (or not) of health professional conscience
	Health care decision-making for minors with religious parents
	Religious objection v. discriminatory behavior
	Informed consent and information flow, e.g., religious objection to providing certain information, inclusion of religious information in consent disclosures, etc.
	“Medicalization” of religious beliefs, e.g., regulation of homosexual conversion therapy
	Abortion policy, including clinic protests and protections, and its relationship to religion
	Embryonic stem cell policy and its relationship to religion
	End-of-life care, including assisted suicide, and its relationship to religion
	Complicity as both a legal and religious concept
	Comparative analysis, e.g., between professions, health care practices, countries, etc.

Please note that this list is not meant to be exhaustive; we hope to receive abstracts related to the conference’s general theme even if a particular topic was not specifically listed here.  However, proposals that lack a clear linkage toall three aspects of the conference – law, religion, and health care – will not be considered.  Law will be treated broadly to include governmental policy decisions more generally.   Abstracts must propose or outline an argument/position, rather than merely stating a topic, in order to enable us to evaluate them.
In an effort to encourage interdisciplinary and international dialogue, we welcome submissions from legal scholars and lawyers, of course, but also from bioethicists, philosophers, scholars of religion and religious studies, clinicians, government officials and staff, international scholars and regulators discussing how their systems have handled these issues, and others who have a meaningful contribution to make on this topic.  We welcome submissions from advocacy organizations, think tanks, and others outside academia, but emphasize that this is a scholarly conference, and abstracts/papers will be held to academic standards of argumentation and support.
How to Participate
If you are interested in participating, please send a 1-page abstract of the paper you would plan to present to petrie-flom@law.harvard.edu as soon as possible, but not later than December 1, 2014.   If your abstract is selected, your final paper will be due on April 3, 2015, and you will be assigned a presentation slot for the conference dates.  Please note that presenters are expected to attend the conference for its full duration.  We will pay travel expenses for presenters who must travel to Cambridge; co-authored papers must name a single presenter.
In the past, we have successfully turned several of our conferences into edited volumes (e.g., with Oxford, MIT, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins University presses). If such a volume arises out of this conference, our expectation is that conference presenters will publish their papers with us as part of the edited volume.  Those who do not wish their work to appear in a potential edited volume should so indicate on the abstract. We will accept conference papers of all lengths and styles (e.g., law review, medical, philosophy, or policy journal, etc.), but chapters in conference volumes are generally limited to about 5,000 words.  Previous conference participants have been able to publish their submissions in different formats in multiple venues, for example both as a short book chapter and a longer law review article.
How to Register
Registration information is available here.  Attendance is free and open to the public, but space is limited.
Questions
Please contact Holly Fernandez Lynch, Executive Director, Petrie-Flom Center, with any questions:hlynch@law.harvard.edu, 617.384.5475.
 

HT Teresa Collett

#### lecture by John Keown
Professor John Keown (Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University) will be giving a lecture in London (Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, Westminster) on May 16, 2011. The lecture, which is entitled "The provision of palliative care: an ethical and legal duty?", is sponsored by by the Anscombe Bioethics Centre. See http://www.bioethics.org.uk/

Professor Keown will also speak on the same subject at the University Faculty for Life annual conference at Notre Dame in June 2011.

Richard M.

#### Legal Issues and Frozen Embryos
Shirley Darby Howell, Professor of Law at Faulkner University's Thomas Goode Jones School of Law in Montgomery, Alabama, wrote "The Frozen Embryo: Scholarly Theories, Case Law, and Proposed State Regulation" for the Human Life Review (Spring 2013) and DePaul Journal of Health Care Law (Vol. 14.3:407). She looks at possible state laws that would resolve disputes about the status of frozen embryos. Here is an outline of her paper:

I. SECTION 1: THE PROCEDURE
A. The In Vitro Fertilization Process
B. Unintended Consequences
C. Who Is Responsible?
II. SECTION II: THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE FROZEN EMBRYO: PERSON, PROPERTY, OR AN “ENTITY” DESERVING SPECIAL RESPECT
A. The Frozen Embryo as Early Life
1. Proponents of the Position
2. Legal Impediments to the Enforceability of “Embryos as Early Life” Position
B. Frozen Embryos as Property
C. The Frozen Embryo as an Entity Deserving Respect
III. SECTION III: SCHOLARLY THEORIES OF DISPUTE RESOLUTION
A. The Robertson Contract Theory
1. Davis v. Davis
2. Kass v. Kass
3. J.B. v. M.B.
B. The Coleman Contemporaneous Consent Approach
C. The Feminist Position
D. The Right to Procreate
E. The Right Not to Procreate
IV. SECTION IV: NAHMANI: ISRAEL’S SOLUTION238
V. SECTION V: ANALYSIS: CONTRACT VS. CONTEMPORANEOUS AGREEMENT MODELS

HT Janet Smith

#### Liberals and Abortion
During the recent annual March for Life in Washington, most of the accompanying speeches by political leaders were delivered, as has become expected, by Republican members of Congress.  I believe there were a scant two Democrats in the mix.  There could be more in support of the marchers - yet the point is that we have grown accustomed to expecting a pro-life politician to be a Republican.  Why?  How did this happen?  In the Summer, 2011 issue of the Human Life Review, Mary Meehan  gives many reasons “Why Liberals Should Defend the Unborn”  - why, according to their own principles and history, liberals should be pro-life.  “In 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe v. Wade, liberals still revered the Court for its defense of civil rights and civil liberties in the 1950’s and 1960’s….Led astray by institutions and people they relied on, many liberals did not follow their own better instincts,” says Meehan.  I recommend the article for presenting this compelling case and for detailing how American liberalism became derailed and found itself supporting legalized abortion.

#### Libertarian Debate over "Evictionism"
Yesterday I posted a brief comment, Allowing the Unborn to Live While Respecting Women's Free Will," on a law review article arguing that the means of abortion should be limited to those which provide the greatest opportunity for the unborn child to flourish while respecting the woman’s right to control her own body.  It appears that I am not the only commentator on the article.  A lively exchange on the the article can be found in the online journal, Libertarian Papers.  The opening salvo is by Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski, who argues that a woman's willing participation in sex precludes her deliberately harming the child that results.  Block responds here. Their debate continues here,  here, here,  and here.

Comments on the exchange between the Block and Wiśniewski on the Libertarian webpages are uneven at best, but a few are also very interesting.

#### Liechtenstein rejects legalized abortion and UN pressure
Voters in this small European country rejected a national referendum that would have legalized abortion during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy.  Current law permits abortion only in cases in which the mother's life is in danger or the mother is under fourteen years-of-age at the time of conception.  Women obtaining illegal abortions may be sentenced for up to one year in jail, and those providing the abortion may be jailed for up to three years.  Details about the proposal and vote can be found here and here.  

In 2007 the United Nations Committee on the implementation of the Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women urged Liechtenstein to liberalize its abortion laws.

"25. While noting the ongoing discussion in a multi-stakeholder working group, the Committee is concerned that women who elect to undergo abortion are subject to strict punishment.

 26. The Committee recommends that the State party consider reviewing the laws related to abortion with a view to removing punitve provisions for women who undergo abortion, in line with the Committee's general recommendation 24 on woman and health and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

  The Committee's report can be found here.

Neither General Recommendation 24, nor the Beijing Declaration require legalization of abortion.  In fact, this issue was hotly disputed at the Beijing Conference and resulted in the following language, "Unsafe abortions threaten the lives of a large number of women, representing a grave public health problem as it is primarily the poorest and youngest who take the highest risk. Most of these deaths, health problems and injuries are preventable through improved access to adequate health-care services, including safe and effective family planning methods and emergency obstetric care, recognizing the right of women and men to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods of their choice for regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and the right of access to appropriate health-care services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant."

Note the language limiting the methods to those "which are not against the law." 

The Catholic Family and Human Rights Association has done extensive study on the issue of whether CEDAW requires nations to legalize abortion, and the results of their study are summaried here. This is an important issue and one that prolife academics should inform themselves on.

#### Life & Learning XVIII is now available
Life & Learning XVIII is now available on the University Faculty for Life website, and will be available in a print version soon. See http://www.uffl.org/lifelearningxviii.html These papers are from the 2008 University Faculty for Life conference at Marquette. Thanks to Father Koterski for his work in editing this volume.

This volume includes papers by (in order of appearance in the volume) Edmund Pellegrino, Lynn Wardle, Richard Myers, Samuel Calhoun, Robert Cetrulo, Christopher Wolfe, Janet Smith, Anne Bardiner, Father John Conley SJ, Craig Payne, James Hanink, Robert Gotcher, Jeff Koloze, and Matthew Sutton.

Richard M.

#### Life & Learning XXX is now available!!!
The 30th volume of Life & Learning is now available at this link. Life & Learning is the annual volume of University Faculty for Life. The papers are largely papers from our annual conferences. Since its inception, the series has been under the expert editorial supervision of Father Joseph W. Koterski S.J.  We are grateful to Father Koterski for his heroic work all these years.

 

The 30th volume includes a Preface by Joe Koterski and papers by Mary Lemmons, Joe Koterski, Richard Myers, Ryan MacPherson, Paul Linton, Bernadette Waterman Ward, Jeff Koloze, Richard Stith, Heidi Giebel, J.R. Kelly, David Hershenov, Peter Simpson, and Richard Fehring.

#### Life & Learning XXXI is Now Available!!!
Due to the great editing work of Don Flanagan, the new edition of Life & Learning is now available at this link. Life & Learning is University Faculty for Life's annual scholarly publication. The volume largely includes papers from our annual conferences.

Father Joe Koterski S.J. edited these volumes for three decades. After Father Joe's untimely passing in August 2021, Don stepped in to finish volume 31. We are tremendously grateful to Don for taking on this important task.

Volume 31 features an introduction by Mary Lemmons and papers by Kathleen Raviele, Angela Franks, Charles Bellinger, David Hershenov and Philip Reed, Erika Bachiochi, Richard Myers, Keith Cassidy, Bernadette Waterman Ward, Theres Kenney, and Jeff Koloze.

 

 

#### Life Affirming Choices
Peter Colosi is featured in a new video, "Life Affirming Choices," produced for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The movie looks at end-of-life ethical issues by focusing on the story of a young man, Brenden Flynn, who suffered a significant brain injury in an accident when he was eighteen. Colosi and several other provide a theoretical framework for the events in Flynn's life and for the life-affirming choices Flynn's parents made.

#### Life and Learning Conference -- its not too late!
Please consider coming to the UFL annual Life and Learning Conference at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York June 6-7.  Not only will there be many scholarly presentation on life issues from a variety of disciplines, but the keynote speaker will be Erika Bachiochi, attorney and editor of The Cost of Choice: Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion, and Women, Sex and the Church.

The annual Rupert and Timothy Smith Award for Distinguished Contributions to Pro-Life Scholarship will be given to Helen Alvaré, Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law and long-time advocate for a culture of life in church and society. 

For registration and accommodation information, see this link.

#### Life and Learning XXV
The twenty-fifth annual University Faculty for Life Life and Learning Conference is under way at the University of St. Thomas Law School in Minneapolis. In the next few days I will be posting summaries of some of the talks. In the mean time here are some photos.

Dean Robert K. Vischer of the UST Law School welcomes the participants.

Melissa Moschella of Catholic University of America presents the plenary session on a child-centered approach to the issues surrounding reproductive technologies.

Richard Stith of Valparaiso explores ways to overcome the imaginative barriers to embryonic personhood.

John Goerke of the University of St. Thomas talks about Edith Stein, surrogacy and motherhood

David Mall waiting for the first break-out session to begin.

Post-talk conversation at the reception.

Post-talk conversation at the reception.

#### Life Decisions International boycott info available by email
Life Decisions International, the group that successfully defunds abortion groups like Planned Parenthood through corporate boycotts, now makes its Caleb Report and other special reports available to members by email.  According to its website, at least 261 corporations have ceased funding Planned Parenthood for “more than $40 million.”  Persons interested in monitoring such corporate boycott activity can review the organization’s website at http://www.fightpp.org/.

#### Life is a Gift Conference this weekend in Detroit
Tomorrow (Jan. 22) is the deadline for online registration for the fourth annual  "Life is a Gift" conference at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit to be held this Saturday from 8:45-3:00. Here are the details:

Keynote Address:

George Weigel
Renowned Theologian and Author of John
Paul II’s Biography, Witness to Hope

Featured Speakers:
Bishop Arturo Cepeda / Chad Judice
Dr. Monica Miller / Scott Klusendorf

All-Day High School Youth Track
Extensive Vendor Exhibits
Music Entertainment
Adults $45 / Youth $15

Breakfast and Lunch Included
Pre-conference Mass is at 7:30

Register today at:
www.aod.org/lifeisagift

Online registration deadline: January 22, 2014
For additional information call 313-237-5894

#### Life issues on podcasts
Colleagues engaged in podcasts may find the material on Josh Brahm’s site helpful regarding how to address the life issues through such media.  His work can be found at http://prolifepodcast.net/.

#### Life Matters at Notre Dame
Father Miscamble CSC gave an excellent talk a few weeks ago in which he discussed the status of the life issues at Notre Dame. Here is a link to the Project Sycamore website where Father Miscamble's talk can be found.  http://www.projectsycamore.com/bulletins/110608.php

Richard M.

#### LifeIssues.net requests articles
Jerry Novotny, editor of LifeIssues.net, is looking for articles for the website, which is nearing eight million viewers internationally.  Please consult the site at http://lifeissues.net/.  I recommend the site as an exemplary vehicle to share full-text scholarly research not only with colleagues, but also students (the vast majority of whom seek information and material online).

#### LifeTech conference, Saturday, 16 September 2017, Cedarville University
Interested in how IT and technology can help the pro-life movement?  Students and faculty in all fields are welcome to attend LifeTech’s annual conference on Saturday, September 16, 2017, at Cedarville University in Ohio.  This is the fourteenth annual conference conducted by LifeTech, an organization of engineers and software developers seeking to expand the use of technology in the pro-life movement.  More information about the conference can be found at: http://www.lifetechconference.org/.  Directions to Cedarville can be obtained using this destination address: 251 North Main St., Cedarville, OH 45314-8501.  For more information, contact John O'Neill, LifeTech president, at 937-280-5696 or e-mail info@LifeTechConference.org.

#### Ligia De Jesus Castaldi on Double Standards on Abortion and Human Rights
Here is a link to a very good essay by Ligia De Jesus Castaldi. The essay focuses on a recent book entitled "Beating Hearts: Abortion and Animal Rights" by Sherry Colb and Michael Dorf. Castaldi's critique concludes with this passage:

"Ultimately, the authors do not make any new arguments for abortion rights, and they fail to make a logical or persuasive case for the compatibility of animal rights and abortion rights advocacy. What the book mostly does is expose the inherent contradictions of the pro-choice animal rights position. Sadly, the book also illustrates the extent to which abortion rights dogma can obscure human reason and harden the human heart to the point that the same person who feels empathy and sensitivity for animal suffering can utterly lack compassion for the lethal violence and excruciating pain that unborn children experience when their lives are ended in the womb."

#### Ligia de Jesus Castaldi on International Abortion Law and the Overruling of Roe
Here is a link to a good article in Public Discourse by Professor Ligia de Jesus Castaldi. The article is entitled "The Supreme Court Should Look at International Abortion Law and Overrule Roe v. Wade."

The article notes that the US law on abortion is more permissive than the law of almost every country. Overruling Roe and Casey in the Dobbs case would more closely align US law with the law in most of the world.

#### Linguistic use of Ngram
Colleagues involved in linguistic study may find Google’s Ngram feature helpful as a starting point for discussion about the use of words over the centuries.  A word of caution, though: entering the words “abortion,” “infanticide,” and “euthanasia” results in a graph which may be misleading.

As pro-life scholars know, “abortion” was often called “infanticide” by British and American feminist activists in the nineteenth century.  This may account for apparent rise in the use of the term “infanticide” just before the American civil war when protective laws were beginning to be passed to ban abortion for the express purpose of safeguarding both mother and child.  Although discussed in a biased newspaper, a review of the Ngram feature can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/books/17words.html?_r=3&ref=todayspaper.  The database can be found through http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/.

#### Lipinski on the "Women's Health Protection Act"
Here is a link to a good essay in Public Discourse by Daniel Lipinski. He discusses the Women's Health Protection Act, which was recently passed by the House. Lipinski explains that this radical, pro-abortion bill may come back to haunt the Democratic Party. Here is his concluding paragraph:

"As the Democratic Party moves further into abortion extremism at the national level, it is hard to imagine the party embracing a more moderate stance. Absent a miracle, it will likely only happen when party leaders wake up to the electoral downside. The 2022 midterms could prompt this awakening. The Democratic Party, of course, won’t become a pro-life party in the foreseeable future. But party leaders may finally realize that they need to make room in a big tent for the one in four Democratic voters who identify as pro-life. The passage of this dreadful bill could be Democrats’ wake-up call."

#### Literary research tip
Colleagues who conduct online research are familiar with statewide services like OhioLINK that use Library of Congress subject headings in their library catalogs.  (OhioLINK is the consortium that connects virtually all of the libraries of private and public colleges and universities in Ohio).  You may also want to conduct literary research using the “search inside this book” feature within Amazon to identify materials concerning your research topic.  Let’s share this research tool with colleagues and our students.  Thanks to Cecily Routman of the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation for this tip.

#### Live Action, Planned Parenthood, and the Morality of Lying
There has been a lot of discussion about Live Action's videos that reveal some shocking practices by Planned Parenthood staffers.

On the Public Discourse website, Christopher Tollefsen has criticized Live Action's practices. Others, including Christopher Kaczor, have defended Live Action's approach. While admitting that this is a very difficult issue, I am inclined to think Tollefsen has the better of the argument. 

Here are links to the articles on the Public Discourse website and commentary on the Mirror of Justice blog. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/02/2529

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/02/2538

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/02/2547

http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/02/tollefsen-why-lying-is-always-wrong.html

http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/02/the-on-line-journal-public-discourse-under-the-brilliant-editorship-of-ryan-anderson-has-become-a-key-site-for-people-inter.html

Update (Feb. 21, 2011): Here are some more links on this debate.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/02/2648

http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/02/to-tell-the-truth.html

Richard M.

#### Lou Gerhig's Disease and Seeking Control of Death
The Sunday New York Times has an opinion piece entitled "The Good Short Life" describing a man's struggle with Lou Gerhig's disease and his decision to take his own life at some point.  Classifying this piece as an opinion piece makes sense when we consider that emotion, rather than reason, is the basis of public debate today. As a legislator once told me, "Facts tell, but stories sell."  Most of us remember compelling stories more easily than the most precise and carefully reasoned arguments.  The prolife movement must present compelling stories to win the public debate of euthanasia and abortion.

#### Louisiana admitting privileges case heads to Supreme Court
Here is a link to a story on Scotusblog about the cert petition that was filed today (April 17, 2019) in the Louisiana admitting privileges case. The case is June Medical Services v. Gee. In 2016, the Supreme Court invalidated a Texas law that requires that abortionists have admitting privileges at local hospitals. In June Medical Services, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld Louisiana's admitting privileges requirement.

In February 2019, the Supreme Court granted a stay of the Fifth Circuit's ruling and that prevented the law from going into effect. Now, June Medical Services has asked the Court to review the Fifth Circuit's decision. The Court is likely to grant the petition and take up the case in its 2019-2020 Term.

#### Louisiana Law on Admitting Privileges Upheld by Federal Appellate Court
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News on the recent decision (2-1) of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upholding the constitutionality of Louisiana's law requiring a doctor performing abortions to have active admitting privileges at a local hospital. As quoted in the article, here is a comment by Dorinda Bordlee from the Bioethics Defense Fund:

“In light of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion that unjustly struck down a similar Texas admitting privileges law, today’s 5th Circuit ruling is a huge win. The abortion industry has failed in its attempt to use the federal courts to undermine customary health standards for women who are physically injured by the known medical risks of abortion, such as uterine puncture or cervical tearing. This pro-woman, pro-life legislation recognizes the reality that abortion endangers the lives of both women and children.”

 

 

#### Louisiana ultrasound law challenged
Louisiana recently passed The Ultrasound Before Abortion Act, which requires ultrasounds before abortions are performed but doesn't require that the woman view the ultrasound images. The Bioethics Defense Fund helped draft the law. For more information about the law, see http://bdfbuzz.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/ultrasound-bills-touted-in-wash-post-column/  On August 6, 2010, the law was challenged in federal court. For reaction to the lawsuit, see  http://www.lifenews.com/state5330.html

UPDATE: The ultrasound law will go into effect after the parties filed a joint stipulation with the federal district court that makes it clear that the the woman seeking an abortion is not required to view the ultrasound pictures.  Here's a link to a CNBC story from August 19, 2010 that reports on this latest development. http://www.cnbc.com/id/38776848 For the reaction of the Bioethics Defense Fund to the settlement, see http://bdfbuzz.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/court-victory-for-la-ultrasound-before-abortion-act/

Richard M.

#### Loving Samuel: Suffering, Dependence, and the Calling of Love by Aaron D. Cobb
Pro-life literature colleagues, FYI: brief review of Loving Samuel: Suffering, Dependence, and the Calling of Love by Aaron D. Cobb.  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1024692808

 

#### Loyola Marymount hires dean with past ties to Planned Parenthood
According to the National Catholic Register, Loyola Marymount, a Jesuit university in Los Angeles, recently appointed Robbin Crabtree as dean of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts. Crabtree has been a consultant to Planned Parenthood in Indiana. An alumni group, Renew LMU has cited the choice as evidence that LMU may be in danger of losing its Catholic identity, stating that Crabtrees past ties with Planned Parenthood are contrary to the universities commitment to justice.

#### Lynn Wardle on the impact of sexual and marital morality on society
UFL board member Lynn Wardle has written an article for CNSNews.com called "Disintegration of Sexual and Marital Morality Is Having a Detrimental Impact on Society." Wardle highlights the detrimental effect Roe v. Wade has had on U.S. culture. He also discusses the possibility that the U.S. can reverse the trend.

#### Maine legalizes assisted suicide
Here is a LifeNews.com reporting on Maine's governor signing a law legalizing physician-assisted suicide. Maine is the 8th state to allow assisted suicide. The others are California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington; assisted suicide is also legal in DC and in Montana due to a court decision.

#### March for Life 2011
The March for Life this last Monday was a great success, and a testimony to the growing appeal of the culture of life to young people. http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/youthful-march-life_536951.html

The event was ignored by a lot of the media. See this LifeNews story. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/26/abc-cbs-nbc-new-york-times-all-ignore-march-for-life/

Here is a link to a story in the Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/24/AR2011012402577.html 

Here is a link to a piece by Terrence McKeegan (of C-FAM) on the March.  McKeegan's piece is entitled "Pro-Life Movement Reaches Ascendancy."     http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1777/pub_detail.asp

Richard M.

#### March for Life coverage
See the links below. I still find it hard to believe how the March is downplayed in places such as the New York Times. I looked through the Times this morning and found a half a sentence referring to the March. That phrase mentioned that there were "thousands" of people in attendance.

http://www.lifenews.com/2015/01/22/hundreds-of-thousands-of-pro-lifers-march-for-life-mourn-57-million-abortions/

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/the-largest-human-rights-march-in-the-world-hundreds-of-thousands-join-marc?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=9d6ad53147-LifeSiteNews_com_US_Headlines_06_19_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0caba610ac-9d6ad53147-397678689

Richard M.

#### March for Life/Cardinal O'Connor Conference
One of the highlights of the January March for Life is the UFL co-sponsored Cardinal O'Connor Conference. This year the student-run conference will be on Monday, January 20.

"The Cardinal O'Connor Conference was founded by Georgetown students in January 2000 and renamed after the death of His Eminence, John Cardinal O’Connor, the late Archbishop of New York and great champion of the sacredness of every human life. The Conference, which remains entirely student run, intends to connect and educate students, clergy, activists, and academia from around the country. It is held each year around the time of the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C."

 Among the speakers will UFL members and friends of UFL:

Keynote:
Robert P. George: McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University
Panel: “Publicly Pro-Life: Why Abortion Isn’t a Private Issue”
Christopher Tollefsen: Professor of Philosophy, USC

Hadley Arkes: Edward N. Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions, Amherst College

Charmaine Yoest: President and CEO, Americans United for Life

Thomas Farr: Director of the Religious Freedom Project
Breakout Sessions
Confirmed speakers:

Georgette Forney: Co-Founder, Silent No More; President, Anglicans United for Life

Rabbi David Novak: Professor of Religion and Philosophy, University of Toronto

Steven Mosher: President, Population Research Institute

Karen Clifton: Executive Director, Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Death Penalty

Stephen Fields, SJ: Professor of Theology, Georgetown University

Hanna Klaus: Director, Natural Family Planning Center

Anne-Elisabeth Giuliani: Chaplain-in-Residence, Georgetown University

Jennifer Lahl: Founder and President, The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network
Mass for Life
Principal Celebrant: Most Rev. Michael Barber, SJ, Bishop of Oakland

For details and videos of previous years' conferences, see the Conference web page.

#### Marco Rubio to introduce CIANA
Here's a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about Marco Rubio's plan to introduce CIANA (the Child Interstare Abortion Notification Act).  http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/02/senator-rubio-to-introduce-nrlc-backed-child-interstate-abortion-notification-act-ciana/

Teresa Collett (president of University Faculty for Life) and I have testified before congressional hearings in support of CIANA.

Richard M.

#### Margaret Somerville on "post-truth, euthanasia, and elder abuse"
Here is a very interesting essay by Margaret Somerville discussing post-truth, euthanasia, and elder abuse. Somerville's work is always worth reading.

#### Margaret Somerville on withdrawing food and water
Here is a link to a good essay by Margaret Somerville on the complex ethical issues involved in withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration.

#### Margot Cleveland on the Abortion Pill Case
Here is a link to an essay by Margot Cleveland on the abortion pill case. Cleveland reviews Judge Kacsmaryk's April 7, 2023 ruling enjoining the FDA's approval of the abortion drugs (mifepristone and misoprostol).

#### Mark Rienzi's essay on conscience
Here is a link to Catholic U law professor Mark Rienzi's recent essay on conscience. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/03/2854 This essay is based on a longer article, which I have mentioned before. See  http://uffl.org/blog/?p=491 This essay provides a good summary of his argument. Rienzi argues that Roe and Casey, with their emphasis on autonomy arguments, provide support  for a right to conscience. 

Richard M.

#### Mark Rienzi's paper on the right to refuse to do abortions
Courtesy of Rob Vischer and the Mirror of Justice blog, here is a post on Mark Rienzi's article on health care providers' right to refuse to perform abortions. Mark takes a novel approach. He argues that cases such as Planned Parenthood v. Casey and Lawrence v. Texas provide support for the refusal to perform abortions. http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/01/does-a-health-care-provider-have-a-constitutional-right-not-to-participate-in-abortions.html

Richard M.

#### Mary Ann Glendon and Carter Snead and "The Case for Overturning Roe"
Here is a link to a good essay by Mary Ann Glendon and Carter Snead entitled "The Case for Overturning Roe." The essay is in National affairs. Here is their conclusion:

"Nothing in the Constitution or the Court's role requires such a deleterious framing of the complex human relationships at stake. The Court has no business in this space. It should remove itself from it and restore to the people's elected representatives the authority to pursue laws and policies designed to meet the genuine needs of the vulnerable families involved in these often-tragic situations."

#### Massachusetts Court Considers Right to Assisted Suicide
Here is a link to a Reuters story on the oral argument before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. The Court is considering whether there is a state constitutional right to assisted suicide. In 1997, the US Supreme Court rejected a federal constitutional challenge to laws banning assisted suicide.

#### Matercare International's 8th Worldwide Conference Soon
Registration is still open for Matercare International's Eighth Worldwide Conference.  The conference theme is the “Dignity of Mothers and Obstetricians-Who on Earth Cares.”  It will be held August 31-September 4, 2011 at the Instituto Maria Bambina, Rome.  The conference schedule can be found here, and registration forms here.

Matercare International is an international group of Catholic obstetricians and gynaecologists, which has adopted a preferential option for mothers and babies. MCI’s mission is to carry out the work of Evangelium Vitae (the Gospel of Life) by improving the lives and health of mothers and babies both born and unborn, through new initiatives of service, training, research, and advocacy designed to reduce the tragic levels of abortion world-wide and maternal and perinatal mortality, morbidity in developing countries.

#### Matt Bowman's article on conscience
Here is a link to an article by Matt Bowman (of the Alliance Defense Fund) on the latest developments on conscience rights. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=43307

Richard M.

#### Matthew Bulfin Educational Conference at Georgetown
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists announces that registration is open for its Matthew Bulfin Educational Conference at Georgetown in February 2015.  Please see:

http://aaplog.wildapricot.org/event-1727588

#### Matthew Franck's commentary on Gosnell
Here  is link to an excellent essay by Matthew Franck entitled "Kermit Gosnell and the Ideology of Abortion on Demand."

#### McCullen v. Coakley editorial
Oral arguments were heard Wednesday in the McCullen v. Coackley case before the Supreme Court. The dispute is about a Massachusetts law which prohibits non-clinic employees from side-walk counselling within 35 feet of the entrance of a clinic. Amy Howe, of Bloomberg's Supreme Court blog, seems to think the law will not be upheld, based on her analysis of the oral arguments. Here is an editorial analysis of the case from the National Catholic Register.

#### Melissa Clouthier's column on "aborting imperfection"
Here is a powwrful column by Melissa Clouthier on aborting children with disabilities. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/23/aborting-imperfection-abortions-on-disabled-babies-are-dead-wrong/

Richard M.

#### Micahel Paulsen paper on the analogy between abortion and slavery
Here is a link to Michael Paulsen's paper entitled "The Insistent Analogy to Slavery."http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2395002

This paper was presented at the "Roe at 40" conference at Washington & Lee Law School. The conference was supported by University Faculty for Life, among others, and largely came about through the hard work of Sam Calhoun. The papers from the conference, including Professor Paulsen's paper, will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Washington & Lee Law Review.

Richard M.

#### Michael Fragoso on conscience protection
Here is a link to Michael Fragoso's recent essay on conscience on the Public Discourse blog. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/11/4296

Fragoso discusses the efforts of ACOG and ABOG to limit the right to conscientious objection and the likely consequences of such efforts. As Fragoso states:
"The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ABOG) are restricting opportunities for healthcare professionals to object to abortion and contraception on grounds of conscience. This will accelerate the growing problem of physician shortage."
 
Richard M.

#### Michael New on the Gallup poll on abortion
Here is a link to a very good piece by Michael New. Here is his concluding paragraph--

"These Gallup data show that the U.S. regime of abortion-on-demand, throughout all nine months of pregnancy, is inconsistent with the attitudes of most Americans. Strong majorities, across a wide range of demographic groups, oppose both second- and third-trimester abortions, and abortion-on-demand does not even have majority support during the first trimester. Over the past 25 years, the pro-life movement has made significant progress in passing a variety of state-level laws to limit late-term abortions. These new polling results should encourage them to keep up the fight."

#### Michael New's book review of a recent work that documents the diversity of the pro-life movement
Here  is a link to a book review by Michael New. New reviews Karissa Haugeberg's "Women Against Abortion: Inside the Largest Moral Reform Movement of the Twentieth Century." The book profiles Mildred Fay Jefferson, Joan Andrews, Marjory Mecklenberg, Julie Loesch, and Shelly Shannon.

New discusses some flaws in the book but in the end offers this assessment:

"Despite these flaws, Women Against Abortion is an important book. The pro-life movement has always been very diverse and nuanced. Since Roe v. Wade, pro-lifers have pursued a variety of strategies to protect the unborn. Legal and political efforts have been more visible than outreach, education, street-level activism, and providing for women facing unintended pregnancies, and consequently these efforts have not received much attention from researchers or scholars. But that does not mean that they have not been an essential part of the pro-life movement. By detailing the history of female pro-life activists who have pursued these less conventional forms of pro-life activism, Haugeberg has performed a valuable service for her readers."

 

#### Michael New's comment on NEJM study on abortion-mental health link
Here is a link to Michael New's comment on a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study released by the NEJM allegedly refutes the link between abortion and an increased risk of mental health problems. New explains the flaws in the NEJM study. New's comment also includes a link to a Priscilla Coleman's  critical analyis of the NEJM study.  http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/27/more-misleading-research-about-abortion-mental-health-link/

Richard M.

#### Michael New's commentary on the recent Gallup survey
Here is a link to a good piece by Dr. Michael New discussing the recent Gallup survey showing a decrease in pro-choice sentiment. Here is his conclusion: "Men, women, all regions, all age groups, and people of all educational levels all became more pro-life. That might be the best news of all for pro-life activists." 

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/14/additional-gallup-data-proves-america-trending-strongly-pro-life/

Richard M.

#### Michael New's review of Jane Gilroy's book on Ellen McCormack
Here is a link to Michael New's review of Jane Gilroy's book on Ellen McCormack. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/08/6039  McCormack's 1976 presidential campaign was an important moment in the history of the pro-life movement. New notes: "This campaign is nicely chronicled in Jane Gilroy’s new book A Shared Vision. Gilroy gives some well-deserved attention to the accomplishments of a pro-life pioneer. She also details a presidential campaign that, despite taking place 36 years ago, still contains important lessons for today’s pro-life activists." New closes his review with this observation: "The pro-life movement unfortunately has devoted few resources to chronicling its own history. Thus by giving pro-life pioneer Ellen McCormack some overdue recognition, Gilroy has done her readers a fine service."

Richard M.

#### Michael Paulsen essay on abortion and rape
Here is a good essay (The Right to Life and the Irrelevance of Rape) by Michael Paulsen.  http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/09/6229

Here is key portion of his argument: "The fact of rape is irrelevant. Rape is tragic, awful, horrible, gut-wrenching—an unspeakable crime of great emotional harm—but rape is essentially irrelevant to the morality of abortion. The issue is the human status, or lack thereof, of the unborn child—whether he or she has a right to live, or may instead be killed for reasons society deems sufficient good cause or simply leaves to the mother’s unrestricted choice. "

Richard M.

 

#### Michael Paulsen essay on sex-selection abortions
Here is a link to an essay by Michael Paulsen that was published today on the Public Discourse blog. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/10/4149

After noting the practice of abortion for sex-selection, Paulsen discusses the prospect that a law banning abortion for reasons of sex selection might force the Supreme Court to confront the realities of its abortion case law. Here is a quote from the essay--

"A sex-selection ban would indeed present the Supreme Court with a dilemma. To strike down such a law—in essence, to embrace a constitutional right to sex-selection abortion—would expose just how extreme and immoral the Court’s present abortion doctrine really is. To read such a result in the name of “gender equality” would be monstrous and absurd. Such a ruling would undermine support both for Roe and for the Court as an institution as never before. (Concern for the Court’s own prestige and public support was, in fact, part of the reasoning in Casey for reaffirming Roe.) A sex-selection ban dares the pro-abortion justices to embrace an abortion right to kill girls for being girls. Such a ruling would expose the illegitimacy of the Court’s abortion decisions."

But, Paulsen goes on to discuss, to uphold the law would require the Court to acknowledge the humanity of the unborn child. And, he states, "acknowledge the humanity of the fetus and the regime of Roe collapses." 

Paulsen also suggests pushing for a federal law banning abortion for sex-selection, particularly during an election year. "There is no better litmus test issue over life, and there is no better time for pressing such a challenge than during an election year."

Richard M.

 

#### Michael Paulsen's essay on Roe v. Wade
Here is a link to a very good essay ("The Unbearable Wrongness of Roe") by Michael Paulsen.  http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/01/4577

The essay was posted today, the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  As Paulsen notes, today thousands will be marching for life in Washington DC and around the country. The number of young people at these marches is a wonderful, hopeful sign for the pro-life movement. 

Richard M.

#### Michael Stokes Paulsen on the Dobbs case
Michael Stokes Paulsen has two excellent essays on Public Discourse discussing the Dobbs case, which may result in the overruling of Roe and Casey. Part I focuses on  "why Dobbs is the most important abortion case to reach the Court in nearly thirty years—since Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), the case in which a splintered Court, by the narrowest of 5-4 margins, reaffirmed Roe, not because a majority of the justices thought Roe was right, but on the basis of the judicial doctrine of “stare decisis.” Dobbs is important because it frames a direct challenge to Roe and Casey, forcing the Court to confront the legal indefensibility and radicalism of the Court’s pro-abortion jurisprudence. Dobbs poses the enormously important question whether Roe and Casey, two of the worst constitutional decisions of all time, were wrongly decided and should now, finally, be overruled. On the merits, I submit, the answer must be yes.

Part II considers "the question whether the doctrine of stare decisis legitimately can require, or even permit, the Court to adhere to a grievously wrong, legally insupportable precedent, simply because it is a precedent." Paulsen's answer is an emphatic no.

As Paulsen explains, "Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is likely to make history."

#### Midwives lose conscience case in Scotland
Here is a link to an article on the recent decision from the Court of Session in Edinburgh rejecting the arguments of 2 midwives who claimed a right to conscientiously object to being forced to supervise the carrying out of abortions. http://www.sconews.co.uk/latest-edition/16846/forced-to-supervise-abortions/ I have not been able to find a copy of the decision but the descriptions of the court's ruling I have seen are quite troubling. The judge didn't think the midwives' rights were infringed because they weren't required to have "direct involvement" in the abortions.

Richard M.

#### Mikey Cortez and the Cortez family
I am sure that many have already read about Mikey Cortez and his loving family. I thought it was important though to include a mention of him and his family on this blog. After Mikey Cortez was injured in car crash in 1982, his family promised to always care for him. The story of their love and care for their son for the next 31 years  is one of the most inspiring things you'll ever read.

Here is a link to the family's obituary for Mikey Cotez and another link to a column by Wesley Smith.

http://www.evans-brownmortuary.com/obituaries/Austin-Cortez/#!/Obituary

http://www.lifenews.com/2014/01/27/family-cares-for-son-in-coma-for-31-years-before-dying/

Richard M.

#### Mississippi abortion case
On July 29, 2014, a divided panel of the Fifth Circuit affirmed an injunction preventing enforcement of Mississippi's law requiring that abortionists have admitting privileges at local hospitals. Here is a link to a National Right to Life News story on the case.  See http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2014/07/how-and-where-an-appeals-panel-decision-to-strike-down-law-that-would-have-closed-mississippis-last-abortion-clinic-went-wrong/#.U9paA9jjjcs

Judge Emilio Garza's dissent is a persuasive account of the errors in the majority opinion.

Richard M.

#### Mississippi abortion law enjoined
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on a decision from a federal judge enjoining Mississippi'a abortion law.http://www.lifenews.com/2012/07/02/judge-blocks-mississippi-law-to-make-it-abortion-free/?pr=1 The new Mississippi law required abortion practioners to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. The effect of the new law would likely have been to make Mississippi the only state in the country without an abortion clinic.

Richard M.

#### Mississippi AG Urges Supreme Court to Overrule Roe and Casey
On July 22, 2021, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed a hard-hitting brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization urging the  United States Supreme Court to overrule Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Here and here are links to articles on the filing.

Dobbs involves the constitutionality of a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks. Fitch states that the law ought to be easily upheld "[b]ecause nothing in constitutional text, structure, history, or tradition supports a right to abortion." But to uphold the Mississippi law, the Court will need to confront the continuing validity of Roe and Casey.  Fitch argues that "the question becomes whether this Court should overrule those decisions. It should. The stare decisis case for overruling Roe and Casey is overwhelming."

 

#### Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks blocked
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on a decision by a federal judge granting a temporary restraining order preventing the enforcement of a new Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks.

#### Mississippi law on admitting privileges enjoined
Here is a link to National Right to Life News story about a decision by a federal judge enjoining a Mississippi law requiring that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at a local hospital. The judge relied on Whole Womans Health v. Hellerstedt, the 2016 Supreme Court decision invalidating a similar Texas law.

#### Mississippi personhood amendment rejected
The personhood amendment in Mississippi was rejected by voters.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/us/politics/votes-across-the-nation-could-serve-as-a-political-barometer.html

The implications of this vote are not clear. As the New York Times article notes, the personhood amendment effort has split the pro-life movement. Some pro-life groups object to the personhood effort on strategic grounds.

Richard M.

 

 

#### Montana murder/suicide and Montana's law on "aid in dying"
Here is Wesley Smith's commentary on a recent murder/suicide in Montana and the efforts of Compassion and Choices" to use the incident to promote "aid in dying."   http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/09/04/compassion-and-choices-uses-murdersuicide-to-advertise-doctor-prescribed-death-in-montana/ An 81 year old man shot his 81 year old wife (who had cerebral palsy) and then set their house on fire and then shot himself. According to the local sheriff, the murder was an act of love to end the wife's pain. As Smith points out, there are many unanswered questions in the case. What a tragedy that our society views killing as a solution.

Richard M.

#### Montana Supreme Court and Abortion
Here is a link to a recent decision from the Montana Supreme Court holding that a Montana statute requiring that minors obtain parental consent to obtain an abortion violates the Montana Constitution.

#### Moral Theology and the Irish abortion law
LifeSiteNews.com, in "Ireland’s abortion bill the result of 40 years of bad moral theology: priest/professor," reports that a leading Catholic moral theologian and long-time defender of life, Fr. Vincent Twomey, blames the passage of the recent Irish abortion law on years of bad moral theology training in the seminaries that is “radically at variance with church teaching.” Fr. Twomey's original Irish Times op-ed is available here.

#### More 2015 Conference information - hotels
Our 2015 Conference page now includes hotel information. Several hotels near the conference site offer special rates.

#### More African American abortions than births in NYC
As cnsnews.com reports, a recent report by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene shows that more African Americans were aborted in 2012 than were born. The report also indicates a high ratio of Hispanic abortions. The statistics are consistent with the abortion figures from the Center for Disease Control in 2010.

#### more commentary on NY Times story on "selective reduction"
Last week, I posted an item about the NY Times story on selective reduction. http://uffl.org/blog/?p=1493

There has been continuing commentary on this story. Here are links to a couple of posts on the Mirror of Justice blog. Here http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/08/the-failure-of-liberal-bioethics.html and http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/08/the-real-test-of-pro-choice-honesty.html

Richard M.

#### More from John Finnis on Constitutional Personhood
Here is a link to another essay by John Finnis on constitutional personhood. In this essay, Finnis responds to an essay by Ed Whelan.The most recent essay  by Finnis (dated April 9, 2021) contains links to the relevant essays in this important dialogue.

#### More on "Contraception helps reduce abortion rate."
It looks like the "contraception reduces abortion" trope is beginning to lose its power, even among abortion providers. This LifeSiteNews article, "Two-thirds of women seeking abortions were using contraception: Britain’s largest abortion provider," highlights many studies and statements, even by abortion promoters and providers, that contraception not only doesn't reduced abortion rates, but actually increases them. The article focuses on a recent study by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, "UK's largest abortion provider," that two-thirds of women who have abortions were using contraception at the time they conceived their child.

#### more on abortion and health care
The Public Discourse website has posted additional analysis of the abortion/health care controversy. See  this analysis by Helen Alvare http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/07/1468   and this analysis by the editors of Public Discourse. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/07/1449

Richard M.

#### more on abortion and women's health
A week ago, I blogged about Michael New's response to the Washington Post piece on abortion and women's health. http://uffl.org/blog/?p=281 Here is response by Priscilla Coleman. The title of her response is "Thirty Studies in Five Years Show Abortion Hurts Women's Mental Health."  http://www.lifenews.com/2010/11/12/opi-1006/

Richard M.

#### more on Hobby Lobby
Here is a link to a story from LifeNews, http://www.lifenews.com/2014/06/30/supreme-court-rules-obama-admin-cant-make-hobby-lobby-obey-pro-abortion-hhs-mandate/ , and a commentary I did for Aleteia.http://www.lifenews.com/2014/06/30/supreme-court-rules-obama-admin-cant-make-hobby-lobby-obey-pro-abortion-hhs-mandate/ As I explain in more detail in the commentary, "Hobby Lobby is an important, although a limited, victory for religious liberty. The decision is also a decisive rebuke to the Obama Administration’s exceedingly narrow view of religious liberty."

Richard M.

 

 

#### More on Idaho Case
I testified in the Idaho legislature in favor of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.  My written testimony can be found here. The law, as enacted is a modest expansion of protection for the unborn.  Currently the US Supreme Court has recognized the state's right to strictly limit access to abortion after the child has become capable of living outside the womb.  This as known as the "viability rule."  (I have previously blogged about Randy Beck's series of articles exploring the genesis and scope of this rule.)  Various statements by the Justices suggest that viability (at least for these purposes) begins around 23-24 weeks of gestation, and at that point the state may prohibit abortion except in cases where abortion is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.  

The Idaho law prohibits abortions at 22 weeks gestation (which is the same as 20 weeks "post-fertilization" - the phrase used in the Act) except in cases where it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother. This one-week extension of the state's interest in protecting the unborn child is grounded in the large body of medical and scientific research showing that a fetus is capable of feeling pain at 20 weeks post-fertilization.  While the number of lives saved by the Act is relatively small (the total number of reported abortions in Idaho performed after fifteen (15) weeks gestation has been twenty (20) or fewer each of the last fifteen(15) years from 1994-2009), the principle that the state can protect human beings who share our capacity to feel pain is quite important.

The plaintiff challenging the Act attacks both the Idaho law generally regulating abortions, and also the Pain-Capable Unbor Child Protection Act itself.  The Complaint asks for certification of a class of women seeking abortions amd makes several general claims.  As to her own situation, she claims that she has procured one abortion from a Utah provider and self aborted a second pregancy using RU-486, which she characterizes as used in the "early stages of pregnancy."  She fails to provide any statements showing how the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act affected or affects her since it is limited to abortions at or after 20 weeks post-fertilization, a time beyond the recognized use of medical abortions in the United States. The case is McCormack vs. Hiedeman, 4:11-cv-00397, and pleadings are available on the Pacer site for the U.S. District Court for Idaho.  

Absent some substantial change in the facts as pled, I suspect that all claims regarding the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act will ultimately be dismissed.

#### more on infanticide
Here is a link to an interesting essay in the Washington Post by Charles C. Camosy. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/is-infanticide-madness/2012/06/14/gJQAnT8RcV_blog.html (Here is Wesley Smith commenting on Camosy's essay.http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/06/25/treating-infanticide-respectfully-makes-it-respectable/)

Camosy begins by noting the controversy over the article on "after-birth abortion." He mentions that the Journal of Medical Ethics, where the original article appeared, is going to publish an issue devoted to infanticide that will include diverse views.

Camosy then contends, and Smith takes issue with this approach, that pro-lifers ought to respectfully engage arguments in favor of infanticide and ought not to label pro-infanticide arguments as "madness," which is how Robby George characterized the pro-infanticide arguments, http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2012/02/its-no-longer-just-peter-singer.html  .

Richard M.

 

#### more on selective reduction
On the Mirror of Justice blog, here is an excellent post by John Breen. http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/08/michael-new-selective-reduction-reveals-a-weakness-in-the-armor-of-choice.html Breen focuses on an analysis by Michael New from NRO. Perhaps the concerned reactions of pro-choice advocates to the NY Times story reveal a natural human response to the taking of an innocent human life. Selective reduction, just as did partial birth abortion, forces people to confront the reality of abortion--that it takes the life of an innocent human being. Being forced to confront this reality, may open a door to rethinking the moral and legal issues at stake.

Richard M.

#### more on stare decisis
In Knick v. Township of Scott, the Supreme Court today overruled a 1985 decision dealing with the Takings Clause. The vote was 5-4 ; Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion and was joined by Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh. The dissent (by Justice Kagan), perhaps with eye to the fate of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, expressed alarm about the majority's failure to follow precedent. Kagan quoted last month's opinion by Justice Breyer complaining about the Court overruling a 40 year old precedent. Justice Breyer then said--"Today's decision can only cause one to wonder which cases the Court will overrule next." In Knick, Justice Kagan added--"Well, that didn't take long. Now one may wonder yet again."

#### more on the passing of Richard wilkins
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a brief note on the passing of Richard Wilkins. https://dev.uffl.org/2012/11/30/richard-wilkins-passes-away-at-59/ Professor Wilkins, an emeritus professor at BYU Law School, was a strong and devoted defender of the traditional family and the pro-life cause. His colleague Lynn Wardle sent me this note---

"It is with deep sadness that I report the passing of BYU Law School Professor Emeritus Richard Wilkins, who died unexpectedly of heart failure at age 59 in his Provo, Utah home in late November 2012. As a legal scholar and as the former Managing Director of  the Doha International Institute for Family Studies and Development in Qatar, and former Managing Director of the World Family Policy Center at Brigham Young University Law School, Richard was so influential in protecting, preserving and promoting legal respect for marriage, parenting and family in legal policies around the world.   

Richard was tireless in his efforts to raise awareness of the value and importance of “traditional” dual-gender marriage, marital parenting, and marital families.  Through his BYU Center and Doha Institute, he created wonderful networks of scholars that increased collaboration and effective advocacy.  He sponsored and supported important gatherings, conferences, and symposia that brought together the best scholars he could find from all corners of the globe to address current issues relating to families and family policies.  He was a gifted and very persuasive writer, contributing many articles and producing numerous books defending, advocating and promoting healthy, happy marriages and marital families.  When he worked as an Assistant Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice, he and Rex Lee wrote the brief for the United States in Akron which succeeded in convincing Justice O'Connor to write a dissenting opinion (joined by Justices White and Rehnquist) noting that Roe v. Wade and the Court's abortion jurisprudence was "on a collision course with itself" and criticizing the trimester-framework adopted in Roe.  To get permission to file that brief, they had to go over the head of the AG Meese, who opposed the DOJ taking any positon in the case, and get approval from President Reagan. "

Here is a link to a story about Professor Wilkins that was published in the Salt Lake Tribune; among other things, the story notes his long-time role as "Scrooge" in theatrical productions of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."  

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment2/55356433-223/wilkins-family-law-legal.html.csp

Richard M.

#### more on Truman and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Back in December, I mentioned an intriguing debate about Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bombs. https://dev.uffl.org/2011/12/13/father-miscambles-defense-of-harry-truman/ Here, from Christopher Tollefsen, is the latest contribution to the debate (which I had not seen until recently). http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/12/4463 The debate has important implications for the pro-life cause.

Richard M.

#### More on Twin Reduction Abortion
The New York Times article discussing the growing practice of "twin reduction" abortions continues to generate responses.   The practice permits parents expecting two healthy babies to abort one of them, usually for lifestyle reasons.

William Saletan, writing at Slate, considers why those who are pro-choice are so disturbed by twin reduction abortions.   His answer is that such abortions expose the schizophrenic views of those who use different language to describe wanted and unwanted unborn children.

#### More praise for Chris Kaczor's book on the abortion
In a prior post, I mentioned Chris Kaczor's excellent new book entitled "The Ethics of Abortion."  See http://uffl.org/blog/?p=365 Here is a review of the book by Raymond Hain from The Public Discourse website. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/03/2920 In Hain's view, "Kaczor’s clear and even-handed writing makes it an excellent resource for anyone who wishes to think carefully about the significant arguments on either side."

Richard M.

#### More thoughts in response to Albuquerque
I've noticed in general that there are no activists working against late-term abortion among all the folks who claim they think life begins sometime after conception. In other words, even after they recognize the existence of life, they don't much care about protecting it. Many say they will put up with a little protection, as a compromise with pro-lifers, but they are personally almost indifferent as to whether the late-term abortions brought abouit by Roe continue. Bottom line: All those working hard against abortion at any stage are working against it from conception, and those not working hard against it from conception are not working against it at any later stage either. Put another way, our fundamental divide is truly between those who for life and those who are not for life, period. This is very sad indeed. Please, someone tell me my logic here is wrong.

#### Moschella on the pope's in-flight interview
Melissa Moschella, Professor of Philosophy at Catholic University of America and UFL Board member was quoted in the National Catholic Register article, Pope’s Words on Contraception in Accord With Magisterium, Philosophers Say, but Context Is Key, by Edward Pentin. She was explaining why Pope Paul VI's decision to allow nuns in danger of being raped to use contraceptives was not an exception to the Church's teaching that contraception is always wrong, since it is not an attempt to thwart the unitive and procreative meaning of a human sexual act.

#### Mosher to speak at conference
Steven Mosher, one of the foremost researchers on forced abortion in China, will speak on Sunday, January 23, at the Students for Life of America National Conference in Bethesda, Maryland.  Please consult the Students for Life website at http://www.studentsforlife.org/for more information.

#### Mother Theresa
"Life is too precious.  Do not destroy it."

#### Motherhood's Protective Effect on Suicidal Impulse
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among young adults and the elderly.  According to a short article on international efforts to prevent suicide:

"According to World Health Organisation statistics, in the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide and the global suicide rate was 16 per 100,000 in 2009. In all countries, suicide is now one of the three leading causes of death among people aged 15-34 years."  

The article goes on to quote a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal finding that motherhood decreases the likelihood of suicide, with the effect increasing with each child a woman gives birth too.  The Canadian article can be accessed here.

#### Ms. Magazine on Conscience Rights
The Spring 2011 issue of Ms. Magazine has an article on conscience rights entitled "Treatment Denied." According to the article, substandard care is becoming rampant in the US because of protections for conscience. I haven't seen the full text of the article yet. Most such access claims are greatly inflated. For example, in the Storman's case from Washington there was no credible evidence that allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for Plan B contraceptives interfered with access to medical care. 

Richard M.

#### Nan Maitland's assisted suicide
Here is a link (from the National Right to Life News and the blog of Peter Saunders) to a troubling instance of assisted suicide. 

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/04/nanmaitland1/

Richard M.

#### National Association of African-American Studies conference
The National Association of African-American Studies will conduct its annual conference in Baton Rouge in February 2011. The conference is an excellent opportunity for young scholars and students not only to present research on the life issues, but also to connect with colleagues from a wide variety of disciplines and to have their work considered for publication. NAAAS includes several affiliate organizations, such as the International Association of Asian Studies. Details about next year's conference can be found at http://naaas.org/. Persons interested in submitting a specific proposal on the life issues affecting African American, Asian American, or Native American issues can email JeffKolozePhD@sbcglobal.net directly.

#### National Personhood Alliance and Incrementalism
Recently a debate has sprung up in the pro-life movement about the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable legal incrementalism. The newly-formed National Personhood Alliance is promoting a version of incrementalism that excludes bills which explicitly mention exceptions where abortions would be allowed, such as rape and incest. Their argument is that any bill that explicitly excludes a category of unborn from the protection due to persons is immoral and unacceptable as a form of incrementalism. They do allow, however, bills that only protect some unborn, but do not mention exceptions. An example of this kind of bill would be the 20 week abortion ban. For the NPA, a bill is acceptable if it would not be overturned by a personhood-from-fertilization amendment.

The NPA works in cooperation with Personhood USA. According to LifeSiteNews.com, Notre Dame Law Professor Emeritus Charles Rice has endorsed the NPA, as has Catholic Bishop Kagan, of Bismarck, North Dakota.

#### NCBQ and the Phoenix abortion case
The most recent issue of the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly (Vol. 11, no. 3; Autumn 2011) contains several articles that continue the discussion about the Phoenix abortion case and related matters. The issue contains articles by Rev. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, OP (Abortion in a Case of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension), Thomas A. Cavanaugh (Double-Effect Reasoning, Craniotomy, and Vital Conflicts), and Rev. Martin Rhonheimer (Vital Conflicts, Direct Killing, and Justice). The NCBQ (edited by Ted Furton) is always well worth reading and this issue is no exception.

Richard M.

#### ND UFL protests Biden Laetare Medal
The Notre Dame chapter of University Faculty for Life voted unanimously to issue a statement of protest to the administration of Notre Dame after it was announced that the Laetare Medal for 2016 would be given to VicePresident Joe Biden and former Speaker of the House John Boehner. The letter "respectfully requests" that the award to Biden be rescinded. Here is the LifeNews article, which includes the entire text of the letter of protest.

This followed a letter by 89 Notre Dame students (among them this writer's daughter) in protest of the award and a statement by the Catholic bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Kevin Rhoades, strongly criticizing the decision.

#### Neb Woman Sues for Medicaid Coverage of Unborn
A Nebraska woman who is not eligible for state medical assistance because of her immigration status has sued the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services for denying coverage to her unborn child under SCHIPS.  According to local news accounts:

"Nebraska state government officials were sued in a similar case last year for cutting off prenatal care to more than 1,500 low-income pregnant women when they ended a program this year that provided Medicaid coverage for unborn children.

The class-action suit, also filed by the Nebraska Appleseed, alleged that the state acted outside its authority when ending the two-decade-old program.

More than 800 illegal immigrants and 700 legal residents lost Medicaid coverage in March 2010 after state officials said they were forced by the federal government to eliminate the one-of-a-kind policy because it broke Medicaid rules.

It allowed unborn children, not just their mothers, to qualify for Medicaid. That meant women who didn't qualify for Medicaid — such as illegal immigrants — were allowed to get Medicaid-covered prenatal care."

The case is Sarah Roe v. the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Resources et. al, CI- 11-3608, Lancaster County Dist. Ct.

#### NEJM essay against Physician-assisted suicide
Here is a link to an article by Dave Andrusko from the National Right to Life News commenting on a recent essay in the New England Journal of Medicine. The essay, by Paul Appelbaum and Franklin Miller, is entitled "Physician-Assisted Death for Psychiatric Patients--Misguided Public Policy."

#### Nevada rejects assisted suicide law
Here is a link to a LifeNews.com story about good news from Nevada.

#### New article on abortion trends worldwide
The new issue of International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Rights contains an article entitled Legal Abortion Worldwide in 2008. The article surveys reports from the 77 nations that permit abortion to perserve a woman's mental or physical health.  The article critiques collection of abortion statistics, noting that most "official" reports are incomplete. The United States continues to lead the world in the number of abortions, but Estonia has the highest abortion rate where 90% of women of reproductive age will have an abortion. Germany and Switzerland has the lowest abortion rate at 7%.

It is discouraging that organizations like Guttmacher are the most up-to-date source of statistical information on abortion, instead of governments charged with promotion of public health.

#### New article on history of the Akron v. Planned Parenthood cases
"Back to the Future of Regulating Abortion in the First Term"  Journal of Gender, Race and Justice, Vol. 16, 2012 U of Akron Legal Studies Research Paper No. 11-11

TRACY A. THOMAS, University of Akron School of Law Email: thomast@uakron.edu

In 2011, more abortion bills were passed to restrict abortion than ever before. The proliferation and rate of proposals outpaces anything seen in the last quarter of a century since abortion was legalized in 1973. In what has been called “a year for the record books,” legislatures in all fifty states introduced a total of 1,100 bills resulting in 135 new laws restricting abortion. These laws include fetal pain bans on abortion after 20 weeks, mandatory ultrasound laws, 72-hour waiting periods, and heartbeat bills that ban abortion after 8 weeks. These laws represent an unprecedented seismic shift in the law from moderate regulation to overt hostility. The advent of significantly more stringent limits on abortion seems to blatantly defy the holding of Roe v. Wade permitting abortion in the first trimester. This abortion activism is part of a larger movement against women’s reproductive health that’s been called the “war on women.” These new laws are part of a war over women’s health being fought around the country — and in much of the country women are losing. State by state, legislatures are creating new obstacles to abortions and are treating women in ways that are patronizing and humiliating.
Despite the recent acceleration of abortion regulation, challenges to the Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark decision in Roe v. Wade by early term regulations are nothing new. Even before the dust settled in Roe, states had legislated to whittle away at the right to abortion by implementing obstacles to abortion under the guise of protecting women’s health and ensuring informed consent. This Article goes back to two of these early cases of informed consent abortion regulations in order to provide important context for the current deluge of first-term abortion regulations. It offers a legal history of City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, and Ohio v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health (Akron II). These two cases, both out of Akron, Ohio, maneuvered the legal boundaries of first-term regulations, with very different results; the first striking down such regulation, while the second upheld limitations on early abortions.
The renewed movement to restrict abortion in the first term resurrects these earlier decisions about abortion informed consent and puts them front and center as the courts will have to shift from considering legislation of late term “partial birth” abortion to early term regulations. This legal history offers insights and analyses gleaned from a review of the historical record found in archives and long-forgotten files in dusty basements. It relies on interviews with key players in the case to fill in the story between the black and white lines of judicial opinions. For the public dispute over abortion in Akron seized the locality while it captured the attention of the national media.

#### New article on Mexican Pharmacies Sale of RU-486
RU-486 has been available and used to induce abortions in Mexico since 2007.  It is available from local pharmacies without prescription.  A new study, How Often and Under Which Circumstances Do Mexican Pharmacy Vendors Recommend Misoprostol to Induce an Abortion, reports on exchanges between pharmacists and simulated clients (a young woman, an adult woman and a male partner) who were sent into 192 randomly-selected pharmacies in four regions to seek help with an unwanted pregnancy.

#### New article on sociology of suicide
SSRN lists a new article entitled "The Sociology of Suicide." The authors' abstract describes the paper:

Since Durkheim's classic work on suicide, sociological attention to understanding the roots of self-destruction has been inconsistent. In this review, we use three historical periods of interest (pre-Durkheim, Durkheim, post-Durkheim) to organize basic findings in the body of sociological knowledge regarding suicide. Much of the twentieth-century research focused on issues of integration and regulation, imitation, and the social construction of suicide rates. Innovations in the twenty-first-century resurgence of sociological research on suicide are described in detail. These newer studies begin to redirect theory and analysis toward a focus on ethnoracial subgroups, individual-level phenomena (e.g., ideation), and age-period-cohort effects. Our analysis of sociology's contributions, limits, and possibilities leads to a recognition of the need to break through bifurcations in individual- and aggregate-level studies, to pursue the translation of Durkheim's original theory into a network perspective as one avenue of guiding micro-macro research, and to attend to the complexity in both multidisciplinary explanations and pragmatic interventions.

#### New Book on Abortion's impact on women
The deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research has recently released a book called Complications: Abortion's Impact on Women. "Drawing on over 650 published studies from international medical and psychological journals, Complications knocks down the generally accepted idea that abortion is perfectly safe." More information can be found here.

#### New book on abortion's negative impact on women
Here is a story from National Right to Life News about a new book on abortion's negative impact on women. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/12/complications-abortions-impact-on-women-is-a-comprehensive-scholarly-examination-of-the-damage-abortion-does-to-women/

The book, "Complications: Abortion's Impact on Women," see http://www.deveber.org/complications, is by Angela Lanfranchi, Ian Gentels, and Elizabeth Ring-Cassidy.

Here is a comment (from the NRL story) from Priscilla Coleman about the book: “This book comes as an enormous relief to many of us who have been studying abortion for decades,“ explains Dr. Priscilla Coleman, PhD, professor at Bowling Green University, who contributed a chapter to the book. “Finally, there is a credible, evidence-based resource to inform medicine, psychology, and law. Moreover, the science is now available in a condensed and easily accessible form to women facing difficult pregnancies and coping with ill-effects of abortion.”

Richard M.

#### New British Data on Abortions on Minors and Abortions Due to Fetal Anomaly
A new report of British abortion statistics is discussed in this Zenit article. 

According to the Zenit article, "In 2010, 482 babies with Down syndrome were aborted. Ten of these were over 24 weeks old. Another 181 were aborted due to a family history in inherited disorders. In total, there were 2,290 abortions in 2010 for reasons of some handicap or genetic problem. Of these 147 were performed after 24 weeks of gestation."

"There were also significant numbers of abortions carried out on girls under the age of consent in England and Wales. In 2010 there were 3,718 abortions among those aged under 16. Broken down this shows 2,676 abortions to those aged from 14-15, 906 to 13-14 years old, 134 to 12-13 years old, and two to girls aged 12 or under." (Emphasis added.)

The data discussed can be found here on the UK Department of Health Freedom of Information Responses.

#### New Gallup poll on abortion
Here and here are links to stories about the newest Gallup poll on abortion. The numbers indicate that 54% of Americans support prohibiting all or most abortions. Here is Dave Andrusko's assessment: "All in all, pro-lifers should be very encouraged by the latest numbers from Gallup."

#### New Gallup poll on euthanasia
Here is a link to a report on the latest Gallup poll on euthanasia. The headline is--"Majority of Americans Remain Supportive of Euthanasia." Currently. 73% support euthanasia, which is the highest level of support since 2005. Here is quick summary--"Support for euthanasia is nearly double what it was when Gallup first polled on the question in 1947, when 37% said it should be allowed by law. By 1973, a slim majority of 53% supported it. Since 1990, solid majorities of Americans have expressed support for euthanasia, ranging from 64% to 75%."

Interestingly, the report shows less support for doctor-assisted suicide than for euthanasia, perhaps because of the negative connotation of "suicide." Here, as in other contexts, the precise wording of the question the pollsters ask is critically important. The "euthanasia" question ("When a person has a disease that cannot be cured, do you think doctors should be allowed by law to end the patient's life by some painless means if the patient and his or her family request it?") seems designed to elicit a favorable response. The report also notes the importance of highly publicized cases--such as the Britttany Maynard case--to public perceptions.

 

#### New gendercide video available
All Girls Allowed has issued a new video about gendercide (the killing of female unborn and newborn children) as practiced in the People’s Republic of China.  Please consult its website: http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/how-end-gendercide.

#### New Issue of Pro Vita (University Faculty for Life newsletter) now available
Here is a link to the new issue of Pro Vita, the University Faculty for Life newsletter. This is the Fall/Winter 2019 issue. Many thanks to Dr. Margaret Hughes for her work editing the newsletter!!!!

The issue features information about our annual conference, which will be held on June 5-6, 2020 at st. John's University. That conference will feature keynote talks by George Weigel and Rev. Joseph Koterski S.J. The Smith Award for Distinguished Contributions to Pro-life scholarship will be given to Professor Teresa Collett.

 

 

#### New Issue of Pro Vita Released
Here is a link to the latest issue of Pro Vita, the newsletter of University Faculty for Life. Thanks as always to Margaret Hughes for her editorial work in putting together the newsletter. The issue contains, among other items, reflections by University Faculty for Life President Mary Lemmons on the passing of Father Joe Koterski, S. J.  The issue also includes the other usual features, including columns by Chris Kaczor and Richard Myers.

#### New issue of ProVita is available
Here is a link to the latest version of ProVita, the newsletter of University Faculty for Life. This is the first newsletter edited by Dr. Margaret Hughes. Margaret teaches philosophy at the College of Mount St. Vincent. Her contact information is here.

Margaret is taking  over for Robert Gotcher, who served for many years as our previous newsletter editor. We greatly appreciate Robert's fine work.

#### New issue of ProVita, the University Faculty for Life newsletter
Here is a link to the latest issue of ProVita, the newsletter of University Faculty for Life. Thanks to Dr. Margaret Hughes (Thomas Aquinas College) for her work in editing the newsletter!!!

#### New Jersey Governor signs Assisted Suicide Law
Here is a link to a LifeNews.com story discussing the legalization of assisted suicide in New Jersey. On April 12, 2019, New Jersey Governor Murphy signed a law legalizing assisted suicide. New Jersey is now the 7th state with such a law. New Jersey joins California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Vermont. Assisted suicide is also legal in the District of Columbia and in Montana due to a court decision. Approximately 21% of the US population live in states where assisted suicide is legal.

#### new Kansas law protects conscience rights
Governor Brownback (Kansas) has signed a new law strengthening the protection for the right of conscience. The new law prevents "anyone from being required to prescribe or administer a drug they 'reasonably believe' might result in an abortion. The measure is seen as an update or upgrade to existing law, approved in 1969, allowing doctors the right to opt out of performing or assisting in abortions." http://www.lifenews.com/2012/05/15/kansas-brownback-signs-bill-protecting-pro-life-pharmacists/  

Richard M.

#### New law review article on the "undue burden" standard after Gonzales v. Carhart
SSRN has a new article by Professor Kiahara Bridges, Capturing the Judiciary: Carhart and the Undue Burden Standard. Professor Bridges joined the law faculty by Boston University from the Center for Reproductive Rights, where she was an academic fellow.  The fellowship is co-hosted and co-sponsored by Columbia Law School. As an undergraduate student, Professor Bridges was a counselor as an Altanta abortion clinic.

The author's abstract describes her new article in this manner:

In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the Supreme Court replaced the trimester framework, first articulated nineteen years earlier in Roe v. Wade, with a new test for determining the constitutionality of abortion regulations — the “undue burden standard.” The Court’s 2007 decision in Gonzales v. Carhart was its most recent occasion to use the undue burden standard, as the Court was called upon to ascertain the constitutionality of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, a federal statute proscribing certain methods of performing second- and third-trimester abortions. A majority of the Court held that the regulation was constitutionally permissible, finding that it did not impose an undue burden on a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy. In order to determine why it is that the undue burden standard has been incapable of striking down laws that limit a woman’s ability to elect an abortion, this Article conducts a close reading of Carhart. The close reading reveals Carhart to be, at base, a logically sound opinion; however, its primary and fundamental weakness is that it proceeds from a highly problematic and disputed assumption — namely, that the fetus is a morally – consequential entity. It is this magnificently undecided presupposition that forms the basis of the Carhart majority’s argument that abortion harms women, a contention for which the decision has gained notoriety. Furthermore, the undue burden standard has come to reflect this presupposition inasmuch as the standard, too, presupposes the inherent “life” and moral value of the fetus. As such, this Article argues that the undue burden standard has become ineffective because, built into it at present, are assumptions about the always already valuable “life” of the fetus that, in any given instance, overdetermine the questions that the Court asks when weighing the constitutionality of a regulation that limits abortion by protecting fetal “life.” When the standard presupposes the existence of a valuable fetal “life,” it is likely that any legislation aimed at protecting that “life” will pass constitutional muster. The Article attempts to rehabilitate the standard by proposing an “agnostic undue burden standard” — that is, an undue burden standard that proceeds from the assumption that the moral status of the fetus is not known. The agnostic undue burden standard would ensure that the state corrupts neither the pregnant woman’s ability to contemplate the moral status of the fetus that she carries nor her ability to contemplate whether the moral status so accorded should affect her decision to continue her pregnancy. If reconceptualized in the way that this Article proposes, an undue burden might be thought to reference those measures that impose upon the woman a conception of the inherent, moral value of fetal life — in derogation of her own personal views concerning fetal life, or in derogation of whether she believes that those views should determine the trajectory that her pregnancy takes. 

The abstract can be found at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1926699.  Instructions on accessing SSRN can be found at http://uffl.org/blog/2011/06/28/ssrn-access-to-scholarly-papers/.

#### New Mexico Supreme Court upholds state ban on physician assisted suicide
Here is a link to the June 30, 2016 decision by the New Mexico Supreme Court upholding the state's ban on assisted suicide. A trial court judge in New Mexico  had found the law unconstitutional. By a divided vote, the court of appeals reversed and the New Mexico Supreme Court has now also rejected the trial judge's decision.

This is welcome news!!! The Supreme Court's decision, which interprets the New Mexico Constitution,  follows the same sort of approach the US Supreme Court exhibited in Glucksberg when the Court rejected the argument that there was a fundamental right to assisted suicide. The New Mexico court reflects a posture of judicial restraint that doesn't always characterize judicial decision-making on contested social issues.

http://www.nmcompcomm.us/nmcases/nmsc/slips/SC35,478.pdf

 

 

#### new Missouri informed consent law goes into effect
Missouri's new law requiring informed consent (in more detail than had been required) prior to an abortion went into effect on August 28.http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/09/02/missouri-abortion-landscape-changes-new-law/  Here is Wesley Smith's commentary. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/09/02/new-missouri-law-requires-informed-consent-about-fetal-humanity-before-abortion/ 

Richard M.

#### New poll shows Americans are increasingly pro-life
On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and of the annual March for Life, I thought it fitting to post this recent story about increasing support for the pro-life position.

http://www.lifenews.com/2016/01/19/new-poll-shows-americans-are-pro-life-on-abortion-as-roe-v-wade-turns-43/

#### New report on severely brain damaged patients
Here is a link to post by Dr. Peter Saunders discussing a new report from the American Academy of Neurology on brain damaged patients. The title of the post conveys the basic message--"Severely brain-damaged patients are commonly misdiagnosed, often aware and may well recover, says authoritative new report."

#### New report on treatment of pain by the Institute of Medicine
Relieving Pain in America is a new report by the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine.  The introduction to the report describes the report as follows:

Relieving Pain in America assesses the state of the science regarding pain research, care, and education and offers a blueprint for developing a population-level strategy to increase awareness about pain and its treatments. The report asserts that the National Center for Health Statistics, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and other government agencies, and private organizations should accelerate the collection of data on pain incidence, prevalence, and treatments. Additionally, training programs for dentists, nurses, physicians, psychologists, and other health professionals should include pain education in their curricula and promote interdisciplinary learning.

Successful treatment, management, and prevention of pain, requires an integrated approach that responds to all the factors that influence pain. Government agencies, healthcare providers, healthcare professional associations, educators, patient advocacy groups, and public and private funders of health care must collaborate to address the issue of pain in America.

#### New SSRN posting of scholarly articles on conscience
UFL member Lynn Wardle has posted two of his articles on the need to protect the rights of conscience on SSRN.  I have described SSRN in a previous post here. Professor Wardle's article, Protection of Healthcare Providers’ Rights of Conscience in American Law: Present, Past, and Future, is part of a series of articles presented at a UFL-sponsored symposium on this topic.  He examines the 2008 Bush Conscience Protection regulations and discusses the debate other their rescission.    In the second article, Rights of Conscience vs. Peer-Driven Medical Ethics: ACOG and Abortion, Professor Wardle reviews a 2007 opinion of the Ethics Committee of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)  prescribing the limits of conscientious refusal in reproductive medicine. He concludes that "the opinion was heavily slanted in favor of the patient’s right to receive reproductive procedures such as abortion or contraceptives" and that "ACOG is unwilling to acknowledge the full power of healthcare providers’ right of conscience." 

While both of these articles are in print, and one is available on various fee-paid databases, it is very helpful the the worldwide community of scholars to have the articles on SSRN for free.  I recommend that all of our members consider submitting future, present, and past scholarly articles to SSRN to enhance the distribution of their work, and to help build a worldwide culture of life.

#### New student law review article on "Death Tourism"
SSRN has a new student article, Exploring the Potential for American Death Tourism.  The author discusses the availability of physician assisted suicide in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg, and the possibility that American citizens will travel to these countries to die. He evaluates the enforcement and efficacy of foreign laws prohibiting travel for purposes of obtaining assistance with suicide, and discusses the constitutionality of any American attempt to prohibit death tourism.  The article can be downloaded at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1920815. Instructions on accessing SSRN can be found at http://uffl.org/blog/2011/06/28/ssrn-access-to-scholarly-papers/.

#### new study on abortion/breast cancer link
Here is a link to a National Right to Life News story on an important new study on the link between abortion and breast cancer. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/12/chinese-abortion-breast-cancer-bombshell-meta-analysis-of-36-chinese-studies-shows-abortion-increases-breast-cancer-risk-by-44/

Richard Myers

#### new Vatican document on abortion's harm to women
The Pontifical Academy for Life is preparing a new document on the the impact of abortion on women. http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=16589

There has been greater awareness of this issue in recent years.   The Supreme Court addressed this issue in Gonzales v. Carhart, and this caused a huge uproar. (I discussed this briefly in my paper at the 2007 UFL conference. http://www.uffl.org/vol17/MYERS07.pdf) But the evidence of abortion's harm to women continues to mount, and so the new Vatican document ought to be help in focusing attention on the matter.  

Richard M.

#### New York assisted suicide case update
In May 2016, in Myers v. Schneiderman, an intermediate appellate court in New York upheld the constitutionality of New York's ban on assisted suicide. (I discussed the case in this paper presented at the 2016 University Faculty for Life conference.) The New York Court of Appeals, which is the highest court in the state, has agreed to review this decision. The case will be argued on May 30, 2017. Here is a link to the docket in the New York Court of Appeals (just search for Myers v. Schneiderman). The docket provides links to the briefs, including good briefs filed by the New York State Catholic Conference and Not Dead Yet.

There has been in recent years a slow movement towards the legalization of assisted suicide, although this has largely happened outside the courts. It would be a surprise if the New York Court of Appeals were to reverse the lower court ruling and hold New York's law unconstitutional (under the New York Constitution).  Last summer, the New Mexico Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to New Mexico's prohibition on assisted suicide. Let's hope the New York court follows suit.

 

#### New York Court of Appeals hears oral argument in assisted suicide case
Here is a link to a brief report on the oral argument before the New York Court of Appeals in Myers v. Schneiderman, which challenges the constitutionality of New York's law banning assisted suicide.

#### New York Times magazine article on Down syndrome
Here is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about a very interesting article in the New York Times Sunday magazine (of July 31, 2011). http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/08/a-father%e2%80%99s-love-a-father%e2%80%99s-search/

The magazine article is very touching. It tells the story of Dr. Alberto Costa and his daughter Tyche who has Down syndrome. Dr. Costa is a doctor and a neuroscientist and after the birth of his daughter he has devoted his medical research to Down syndrome. He has developed some promising treatments. The magazine article also notes the efforts of other researchers who have been developing noninvasive tests to allow preganant women to determine whether their unborn babies have Down syndrome. Many pro-lifers fear that these tests will result in a "cure" for Down syndrome by eliminating children with Down syndrome. The article notes the problems researchers have had obtaining funding for Down syndrome research, perhaps because the "problem" will soon be solved by aborting babies with Down syndrome.    

The article is well worth reading.

Richard M.

#### New Zealand committee does not recommend legalizing euthanasia
Here is a report from Alex Schadenberg on some good news from New Zealand.

#### Nina Totenberg on the Future of Roe v. Wade
Here is a link to an interesting article by NPR's Nina Totenberg  about the fate of Roe v. Wade now that there is, in her estimation, a new six-justice conservative supermajority on the US Supreme Court. The article includes speculation that the Court might rely on the eugenics argument forcefully expressed by Justice Thomas.

#### NJ nurses settle case with hospital; conscience rights protected
Here is a story from the National Right to Life News reporting on the settlement of the case brought by nurses against a New Jersey hospital that had threatened the nurses' jobs when the nurses refused to assist in abortions. The settlement is described as a victory by Matt Bowman, who represented the nurses. Bowman stated: The settlement "is a victory because the hospital finally agreed to obey the law and not force our clients to do any work on abortion cases in violation of their beliefs.  The hospital agreed not to penalize our clients in any way because they choose to not help abortions, according to their legal rights."

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/12/twelve-pro-life-nurses-successful-in-negotiated-settlement-with-new-jersey-hospital/#more-7630

Richard M.

#### No euthanasia legislation to be introduced by premier of Victoria, Australia
Premier of Australia's second largest state, Victoria, has declined a cancer patient's request that the premier initiate legislation authorizing euthanasia, saying that the issue should be decided at the national level. A bill legalizing euthanasia was defeated in the Victorian Parliment in 2008.  The news story can be found here.

#### No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act
The "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act"  (H.R. 5939) was introduced by Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Dan Lipinski (D-IL) in late July 2010. http://chrissmith.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=201572 The Act would permanently ban taxpayer funding of abortion.

Here is information about a letter supporting the bill written by Cardinal DiNardo, who is the Archbishop of Gaveston/Houston and the Chariman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2010/10-150.shtml 

Richard M.

#### No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act
Here is the latest from National Right to Life on the ongoing debate about the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/05/no-matter-what-pro-abortionists-say-this-is-what-the-%e2%80%9cno-taxpayer-funding-for-abortions-act-means/#more-1680

Richard M.

#### North Carolina passes unborn victims of violence law
North Carolina recently became the latest state to pass a law protecting unborn victims of violence. Here is the story from the National Right to Life News. See http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/05/north-carolina-latest-state-to-enact-unborn-victims-of-violence-law/ That story contains a link to NRLC's complete coverage of the federal and state laws on this topic. Back in 2001, I had the privilege of testifying before Congress on a federal bill on this topic. http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju71182.000/hju71182_0f.htm The federal law was ultimately passed in 2004.

Richard M.

#### North Carolina's Woman's Right to Know Act
The North Carolina legislature recently passed the Woman's Right to Know Act, which requires a 24 hour waiting period before an abortion during which the pregant mother would have an opportunity to consider information and view an ultrasound. Governor Perdue vetoed the Act. North Carolina's Catholic bishops have issued a statement urging an override. http://www.dioceseofraleigh.org/news/view.aspx?id=1167

Richard M.

#### North Dakota judge blocks abortion reversal law
Here is a link to a LifeNews article on a recent decision by a federal trial judge in North Dakota. The decision blocks a North Dakota law that requires that woman be provided information about the abortion pill reversal procedure. The court found that the law likely violated the First Amendment rights of the abortion doctors. Seven other states have similar laws.

The decision will likely be appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

#### Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture on Youtube
The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture has a Youtube page. On it they have videos from many previous conferences and events. featuring topics related to life issues, such as "Justice," "The Body and Human Identity." They also have some videos organized by category, such as "Bioethics, Human Dignity, and the Human Person," and "Ethics, Public Policy, and the Common Good."

I imagine that they will have videos up soon of the recently completed fall conference called, "Your Light Will Rise in the Darkness: Responding to the Cry of the Poor."

#### Notre Dame Vita Institute
The Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life has announced its inaugural Notre Dame Vita Institute. The Institute is a two-week educational program designed to help equip participants to more effectively engage the culture on beginning of life issues. The program will be at Notre Dame from June 12-24, 2011; the application deadline is March 1.

https://sites.google.com/a/nd.edu/the-notre-dame-fund-to-protect-human-life/project-guadalupe/Notre-Dame-Vita-Institute

Richard M.

#### Nurses' jobs threatened by their refusal to assist in abortions
Here is a LifeNews report on a lawsuit that was filed by a dozen nurses whose jobs were threatened because they refused to assist in abortions. The suit, brought by lawyers from the Alliance Defense Fund, contends that the nurses' rights under federal and state were violated by the hospital's threats. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/hospital-told-nurses-assist-abortions-or-lose-your-job/

UPDATE: The court issued a temporary restraining order preventing the hospital from forcing the nurses to participate in abortions. This is not the end of the story but it is certainly an encouraging development in the effort to protect the rights of the nurses. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/03/court-stops-hospital-from-forcing-nurses-to-assist-abortions/

Richard M.

#### Nursing Home Residents Views on Death
A study of 121 nursing home residents in England reveals that the residents' views on advance directives and end-of-life care do not vary much from the views of the general population, notwithstanding deaths of other nursing home residents.  The study is summarized with citation at Science Direct here.

#### NY Court rejects challenge to ban on assisted suicde
Here is a link to a blog post by Wesley Smith reporting on the recent decision from the New York Court of Appeals rejecting a constitutional challenge to New York's ban on assisted suicide.  This is very good news. Unlike the situation with abortion and same-sex marriage, federal and state courts are allowing the issue of assisted suicide to be resolved through the democratic process.

#### NY Times article on fetal pain legislation
 

Here is a link to a National Right to Life News story commenting on today's NY Times article on fetal pain legislation.

Here is the conclusion of the National Right to Life News story: "This is an important story that gives credit where credit is due; helps the reader understand why legislation that makes people appreciate the capacity of the unborn to experience pain is so pivotal; and (pro-abortion bravado to the contrary notwithstanding) why abortion advocates are panicky about the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act."

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/08/a-new-york-times-story-that-gets-it-largely-right-about-the-pain-capable-unborn-child-protection-act/

Richard M.

 

#### NY Times article on new efforts to restrict abortion
Here is a link to an article in today's New York Times describing, in the wake of the election of Donald Trump, new efforts to restrict abortion. Here's a bit from the article---

"The effects of Mr. Trump’s victory are only beginning to be felt. But one of the biggest changes is playing out in abortion politics. From the composition of the Supreme Court (Mr. Trump has promised to nominate staunchly anti-abortion justices), to efforts on Capitol Hill to enact a permanent ban on taxpayer-financed abortions, to emboldened Republican statehouses like the one in Ohio, combatants on both sides see legalized abortion imperiled as it has not been for decades."

 

 

 

 

#### NY Times article on NRLC
Here is a link to an article in the July 9, 2016 edition of the New York Times. The article, "Anti-Abortion Group Presses Ahead Despite Recent Supreme Court Ruling," reports on the annual meeting of the National Right to Life Committee.

Here is the first paragraph of the article--"Stung by the recent Supreme Court decision that overturned Texas abortion clinic restrictions, leaders of the country’s largest anti-abortion group are redoubling their efforts for restrictions on abortion that they claim will prevent fetal pain and that they believe can fare well in the public eye and, they hope, in the courts."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/us/anti-abortion-group-supreme-court-ruling.html?_r=0

#### Ny Times article on Ohio fetal heartbeat bill
Here is a link to an interesting story in the New York Times on Ohio's fetal heartbeat bill. The article explores the divisions within the pro-life movement about the advisability of enacting this legislation. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/health/policy/fetal-heartbeat-bill-splits-anti-abortion-forces.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Richard M.

#### NY Times article on Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
Here is a link to an interesting article in today's New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/us/politics/undaunted-by-2012-elections-republicans-embrace-anti-abortion-agenda.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The article discusses the pending House consideration of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, although the article available on-line doesn't manage to mention the title of the proposed bill until the 24th paragraph. The article is all about what the Times can only understand as an effort to "appease [a] vocal base." After the Gosnell trial, which the article does indeed mention, it is is fascinating that the Times can't seem to understand that pro-lifers care about protecting unborn children.

Richard M.

#### NY Times article on proposed personhood amendments
Here is a link to an article in today's New York Times on the personhood proposals pending in Mississippi, and being considered in several other states. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/us/politics/personhood-amendments-would-ban-nearly-all-abortions.html?_r=1

Richard M.

#### NY Times magazine story on "selective reduction"
The New York Times magazine has a story entitled "The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy," http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/magazine/the-two-minus-one-pregnancy.html?_r=1, which deals with "selective reduction.

Here is a commentary from LifeNews. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/10/new-york-times-touts-selective-reduction-as-a-half-abortion/

Richard M.

#### NYC Crisis Pregnancy Centers will not have to post signs for now
A federal court issued an order Wednesday that prohibits the city of New York from enforcing a new law while an Alliance Defense Fund lawsuit filed on behalf of two pregnancy care centers and a maternity home continues. The ordinance threatens non-medical, pro-life pregnancy services centers with heavy fines and possible closure if they don’t provide posted, printed, and oral notices crafted by the city that encourage women to go elsewhere.  Court documents can be found here.

During the UFL 2011 Conference Professor Mark Rienzi presented a paper on the first amendment implications of sign requirements for crisis pregnancy centers.

#### NYT on Unborn Child Pain Protection Acts
The NYT ran a front page article today on the passage of laws limiting abortion in recognition that an unborn child feels pain at 20 weeks. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/us/27abortion.html  
While the article is better than most NYT pieces on abortion as far as trying to be even handed (I know this is faint praise), the reporter omits some important facts.  

1) The Times states that the US Supreme Court has recognized viability as occuring at 24 weeks.  Actually twenty-two years ago the Court recognized that viability could occur as early as 23 1/2 weeks and that there could be as much as a 4-week error in estimating gestational age. Webster, 492 U.S. at 554.

2) The Times fails to explain that the bills date the pregnany from fertilization, rather than gestation.  This means that the limitation begins at 22 gestational weeks, not 20 weeks.  The increased protection is for one and a half weeks at most.

3) The article uncritcally quotes an abortion rights advocate that many of the abortions that would be prohibited are currently performed due to medical emergencies. Yet the laws all have life of the mother and health exceptions. Furthermore, we learned in a widely-publicized interview with The New York Times in 1997 with Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, the majority of cases involving abortion after 20 weeks gestation are performed on a healthy mother and healthy fetus.

4)  The experience of the Deavers described in the article may have been the result of substandard care.  See this analysis by a maternal-fetal health specialist. http://www.omaha.com/article/20110314/NEWS0802/703149995/-1#midlands-voices-nebraska-s-abortion-law-rests-on-sound-justification

Not exactly careful reporting by the Times, but still better than most of their stories on abortion laws.

#### NYT publishes letter to the editor from UFL member
The New York Times recently published an op-ed by a woman who aborted one of two children she was carrying during her 23rd week of gestation.  Monica Miller, a UFL member, responds with a letter to the editor.

 

 

#### Obama Administration Defends its Position on Conscience Rights
Here is a LifeNews report on the Obama Administration's defense of its position on conscience rights. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/10/obama-admin-defends-dropping-doctors-conscience-protections/

Richard M.

#### Obama Administration revises conscience regs
Here is the LifeNews story on the Obama Adminstration's new conscience regulations.http://www.lifenews.com/2011/02/18/obama-admin-weakens-protections-for-pro-life-medical-workers/

Here is Rob Vischer's analysis on Mirror of Justice. http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/02/obama-conscience-regulations.html#tp

Richard M.

#### Obamacare and death panels
There has been a lot of discussion about a new federal regulation that allegedly will bring  death panels into federal health care. Wesley Smith has several good posts on the controversy. He concludes that the death panel charge is an overreaction but that health care rationing is still a "clear and present danger."

Here are links to Smith's posts. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/12/27/obamacare-new-end-of-life-counseling-regulation-a-bureaucratic-end-run-but-not-cause-for-alarm/ 

 http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/12/28/medicare-counseling-reg-not-a-death-panel-but-health-care-rationing-a-clear-and-present-danger/

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/12/28/new-medicare-regulation-probably-does-not-pay-for-assisted-suicide-discussion/

Richard M.

#### October 2012 ProVita Newsletter
I starting to put together the next issue of ProVita.  If anyone has anything to contribute, please e-mail me.  My e-mail address is listed in the previous issues, which can be found here.

What are we looking for?

	News about UFL.
	News about UFL members and their scholarly and pro-life activities.
	Calls for papers and announcements of conferences, symposia, workshops, etc. that members might be interested in participating in.
	Good scholarly resources, either online or in print. This includes web pages, blogs, organizations, etc.
	New, relevant research, whether on the pro-life side or not. This includes books, articles (in print and online), recordings of talks, etc.
	New social networking opportunities.
	Anything else you think a pro-life scholar might find useful or interesting.

I will want to get it out by the middle of October. Thanks.

#### Ohio adopts law banning abortions due to Down Syndrome
Here is a link to a LifeNews story about this welcome development from Ohio.

#### Ohio Governor DeWine signs heartbeat legislation
Here is a link to a LifeNews story about the latest developments in Ohio. On April 11, 2019, Governor DeWine signed legislation banning abortion after an unborn baby's heartbeat is detectable. The law will likely be struck down under Roe and Casey but pro-lifers are hopeful that the current Supreme Court will be more receptive to pro-life legislation.

#### Ohio Heartbeat Bill
Ohio newspapers are reporting on a rally planned for today in support of Ohio H.B. 125 , or as it has become known in the press, the "Ohio Heartbeat Bill."  Absent a medical emergency the bill would generally requires a pre-abortion examination to determine if a fetal heartbeat can be detected and prohibit the performance of an abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected. There are not exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, or fetal anomaly.

Currently a fetal heartbeat can be detected at approximately 5.5 to 6.5 weeks gestation.  The fiscal note accompanying the bill reports that 42.4 % of all abortions performed in Ohio (totally almost 12,000 abortions) in 2009 occurred after 8 weeks gestation.  

If enacted, the law would present a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade.

#### Ohio makes assisted suicide a felony
Here is a link to a blog post by Wesley Smith on developments in Ohio relating to assisted suicide. Smith makes the important point that there is not an inevitable current in favor of the legalization of assisted suicide.

#### Ohio Right to Life updated legislative fact sheet
History and legal students and scholars may find an updated legislative fact sheet from Ohio RTL helpful in their research.  Stephanie Krider, Director of Legislative Affairs for Ohio RTL, has compiled a brochure on Ohio laws concerning the life issues.  Please call or email her for a copy of “Facts of Life—Ohio Laws REVISED”: skrider@ohiolife.org or 614-547-0099 ext. 303.  Other state and international activists may find the information from one of the premiere RTL organizations useful in their own work.

#### Ohio Senate Passes Bill Banning Abortions of Babies with Down Syndrome
Here is a story from LifeNews about this encouraging development. The Ohio Senate has now passed this bill; the Ohio House has already passed a similar bill.

#### Ohio's Heartbeat Law held Unconstitutional
Here is a link to a LifeNews article on the litigation in Ohio. Here is a link to commentary by Walter Weber.

#### Oklahoma judge blocks morning-after pill restrictions
In one of two state-related pro-life legal setbacks, District Judge Lisa Davis prevented a law from going into effect in Oklahoma that would have required children under the age of 17 to have a prescription to obtain Plan B One-step pills or generic emergency contraception. Some believe that these pharmaceuticals may have abortifacient effects.  See the National Catholic Register article for more details.

In the other case, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson has ruled that all hospitals in the state of Washington must provide abortions. See this article on LifeNews.com.

#### Oklahoma Supreme Court finds a Limited State Constitutional Right to an Abortion
Here is a link to a report about the March 21, 2023 decision by the  Oklahoma Supreme Court. The Court, in a 5-4 decision, found that the Oklahoma state constitution contains a limited right to an abortion when an abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother,

#### Oklahoma ultrasound law enjoined
Here is a story from the National Right to Life News about a recent decision from an Oklahoma court enjoining Oklahoma's ultrasound law.  http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2012/03/district-judge-enjoins-oklahoma-ultrasound-law/

Here is additional information and critical analysis about the decision. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2012/03/the-reasoning-behind-the-decision-to-enjoin-oklahomas-ultrasound-act/

 

Richard M.

#### On Guttmacher's study that shows a decline in abortion rate
Here are a couple of articles about the recent Guttmacher study that shows that abortion rates are declining in the U.S.  Guttmacher speculates that the reason for the decline is contraception use. The first NRO article, "U.S. Abortion Rate Falls to Its Lowest Level Since 1973," by UFL member Michael New, shows that Guttmacher's explanations for the decline lack a basis in their data. The second "Regulating Abortion Reduces Abortion," by James Heaney, shows how Guttmacher's own date supports the assertion that stricter abortion laws have reduced the incidents of abortion.

#### One more post on the contraception-coverage mandate
Yesterday I linked Helen Alvaré's comments on the recent Obama Admin decision. Here are a couple of additional pieces. One is political scientist Michael New's "Our Fears Are Realized." Prof. New has presented some of his research on the effects of abortion laws at a UFL conference.

Another is by Greg Pfundstein: "The Misguided Birth-Control Crusade Continues." Let me highlight just this: "Several economic studies, notably one by Berkeley economists Akerlof, Yellen, and Katz, indicate that access to contraception and abortion alters the sex and mating markets and, through risk compensation, actually increase the number of unintended pregnancies."

A (different - and non-Catholic) political scientist I know once made what I think is a related point. Using contraception is in some significant respects easier than abstaining at times when procreation would be imprudent (or otherwise undesired). (Self-control is difficult.) But not using contraception is easier still (even if it's free, one has to make some effort to obtain and use it - and making an effort is difficult). If you promote contraception, you're sending a message that it's okay to do what's easiest. But not using contraception is really easiest. Thus, you're promoting a way of thinking that, in the end, leads to more, rather than fewer, "unintended" pregnancies.

Whether you think in terms of 'risk compensation,' then, or in a somewhat different way, you have reason to doubt that promoting contraception makes sense as a way of preventing "unintended" pregnancies (and abortions).

Add to that the philosophical connection between abortion and contraception, and you have reason, as a pro-lifer, to be very concerned about the Obama decision.

#### Opposition to Assisted Suicide is Still Strong in the US
Here is a link to a helpful post by Alex Schadenberg on his Euthanasia Prevention Coalition blog. He makes the point that most efforts to  legalize assisted suicide have failed and that some states have recently strengthened their laws banning assisted suicide.

#### opposition to Connecticut's assisted suicide bill
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the very strong opposition to Connecticut's assisted suicide bill. The article notes the effective testimony of my colleague Professor Stephen Mikochik (who is a visiting professor at Ave Maria School of Law).  http://www.lifenews.com/2013/03/21/connecticut-residents-stand-strong-against-bill-for-assisted-suicide/

Richard M.

#### Oral Arguments in Dobbs
Yesterday (December 1, 2021), the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Dobbs involves the constitutionality of Mississippi's Gestational Age Act, which prohibits most abortions after 15 weeks.

Dobbs affords the Court yet another opportunity to jettison Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Most observers thought the arguments went well for Mississippi. Here is a link to a good analysis of the oral arguments.

Pro-lifers are cautiously optimistic. A decision is expected by late June 2022.

#### Oregon's assisted suicide law and doctor-shopping
Here is an interesting post from Wesley Smith about Oregon's assisted suicide law and doctor-shopping. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/10/27/as-i-have-been-saying-for-more-than-10-years-oregon-assisted-suicide-leads-to-doctor-shopping/

As Smith describes the phenomenon, doctor-shopping involves "suicidal people looking for death doctors to write the lethal prescription, with that being the only reason for the consultation–as in Jack Kevorkian." Smith's post discusses a recent report by a British group that notes this problem in opposing assisted suicide in Britain.

Richard M.

#### Overcoming the Imaginative Barrier to Embryonic Personhood
Our immediate intuitions sometimes favor the pro-life position and sometimes oppose it. An ultrasound video of an unborn child sucking its thumb makes a case against abortion that reason hardly need supplement. But a zygote photographed just after an in vitro conception is not so easily recognizable as a human being or person.

Pro-lifers often assume that this difficulty has been overcome by modern science, starting with the first clear evidence of ovular fertilization in the 1830s and leading today to the universally-accepted scientific view that life of a human being is a continuum from conception to death. The Aristotelian notion that the embryo is only a building block, to be formed by the father’s semen into a human being during the first months of gestation -- culminating with the insertion of a rational soul somewhere in mid-pregnancy -- has been displaced by a recognition that the conceptus is a self-developing being with a continuity of individual and human identity from its first beginning to adulthood and beyond.

Scientific knowledge that each of our lives began with conception, however, is not enough to convince many people that an embryo is already one of us. Listen to journalist Michael Kinsley, writing in the Washington Post in favor of embryonic stem cell research, express his utter bewilderment at opposition to such research: “I cannot share, or even fathom, [the anti-research] conviction that a microscopic dot—as oblivious as a rock, more primitive than a worm—has the same rights as anyone reading this article. . . . Moral sincerity is not impressive if it depends on willful ignorance and indifference to logic” (2006).

Of course, Kinsley’s intuition that an embryo is “as oblivious as a rock” depends on his own obliviousness to what he simultaneously must know about the embryo’s inner directedness and connection to its environment. Jon Shields has put this point quite well:

[To say that] embryos are merely “clumps of cells” . . . tends to obscure scientific truth itself. This characterization suggests that an embryo is not biologically different than what we might find under our fingernails if we were to gouge a bit of skin from under our arms. It is to imply erroneously that they lack coherence, integrity, and self-direction as organisms. (2007, 19)

Shall we thus conclude that Kinsley and other defenders of embryo research and early abortion – or at least those with a minimal scientific education -- must be acting in bad faith? Are they claiming that individual human identity is lacking in the embryo only because they do not wish to be seen to be attacking widely shared principles that affirm the dignity, equality, or inviolability of all human beings? Such an explanation is too simple. It is belied by the utter bewilderment that Kinsley expects to resonate with his readers. Indeed, the accusation of bad faith ignores the imaginative barrier many or all of us have in recognizing the embryo already to be something that it still in no way appears to be, i.e., a human person.

When a human embryo is visualized simply in terms of its current appearance, its ongoing self-development can easily be missed. No photograph can depict the inner self-direction of a growing embryo. The embryo looks like nothing more than an inert ball of cells, for its future is hidden. Because an entity that had merely embryonic characteristics as its natural end state would indeed not qualify as a human being, it makes quite a bit of sense to suppose that the entity in such a photograph is not human. Scientific knowledge of its inner capability may not be enough to overcome this impression, for it is hard to imagine a nature or design utterly hidden from view.

There is a still greater difficulty. Whatever intuitive problems we may have with imagining biological metamorphosis, with seeing continuity of identity despite seemingly substantial future change in form, with recognizing a caterpillar to be a developing butterfly, it seems nigh to impossible to think of a caterpillar as a particular or individual butterfly in the process of development. But this is how embryos have to be imagined by us if we are to do justice to their human development. We normally think of other creatures generically, as just a certain type of insect, for example, but we think of humans as specific individuals, albeit ones whose individuality may happen to be unknown to us. Because the embryo in the photo cannot (except arbitrarily) be ascribed any particular characteristics, it cannot easily be thought of as a developing individual. The scientific fact that “This embryo can grow up to be an adult human being” is too abstract. We have all seen plain butterflies, but none of us has ever seen a plain (i.e., non-individuated) adult human.

Hence pro-lifers who are honest with themselves must admit that there exist limits to our ontological imagination that are a great barrier to the achievement of full respect for human life, especially very early in pregnancy when the unborn child does not yet look much like the rest of us. However, there are ways to push back these limits and expand our imaginative understanding.

Although we may have considerable difficulty in recognizing future continuity of being, we have little or no difficulty in seeing identity-despite-change when looking back into the past. We may doubt that a new sprout, or even a barren vine, is really a tomato plant, but once it bears tomatoes, we know that it was always a tomato plant. We may doubt that embryos are persons, but as we look back upon ourselves or upon our neighbors, we realize that we and they were all once embryos. An embryo in a photograph may at first seem no more than a grain of sand, but if that embryo snapshot was taken twenty years ago, just after our friend Mary was conceived in vitro, we may well exclaim to her, “Look, Mary. That’s you!”

Thinkers on each side of the debates about early human life have agreed that the identity—and any accompanying dignity—of life over time becomes much more compelling when we look back into the past. Philosopher Jeffrey Reiman, a defender of abortion, acknowledges ruefully that

we tend to read a kind of personal identity backwards into fetuses, and personal identity carries connotations of moral identity beyond mere physical identity. . . . Just because it is so natural to us to think that way, I believe that this “retroactive empersonment” is the single greatest source of confusion in the abortion debate. (1999, 92)

Abortion opponent Oliver O’Donovan makes the same point when he writes, “[T]hose. . . yet unborn become known to us as persons when they are children. . . .” (1998, 384; emphasis in original). We come to know embryos as persons when we come to know the child-persons who first came into existence as embryos.

Opponents of embryonic stem cell research (and early abortion) have often pressed the continuity of identity that is more visible in hindsight: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops a few years ago made widely available an ad with a picture of a newborn baby and the caption “270 days ago, Joshua was just an embryo.” The text went on to emphasize that “embryonic stem cells . . . come with a heavy price tag: they are only obtained by destroying a living human embryo. An embryo like Joshua, 270 days ago.” In 2010, Irish opponents of embryo research put up billboards with photos of many stages of life, from embryonic to elderly, and the words “YOU. ME. EVERYBODY. WE’RE ALL JUST GROWN-UP EMBRYOS.” (capitalization in original).

Such arguments by the opponents of embryo-destructive research are fundamentally cognitive as well as emotional. They are attempts to wrap our minds more fully around human development as known to modern science, attempts to overcome our difficulty in imagining that a very tiny organism can, with time, manifest itself as a fellow human being. They work (insofar as they do work) by first looking backward from fully developed human beings, where the continuity of identity is personal and easy to see, and then very quickly to look forward from undeveloped embryos and think about how they are on a trajectory toward showing themselves to be the kind of people we know and love. That initial backward-looking intuition is not only compatible with but actually depends upon modern scientific knowledge. It is only because of this knowledge that we can point to an old photo of an embryo and say, “That was you, Mary, when you were newly conceived.” Someone who still believed with Aristotle that Mary first came into existence in mid-pregnancy when a rational soul entered into a previously constructed subhuman fetus would not, could not, point to the embryo in the photo and say “That was you, Mary.”

If we could somehow visualize facets of a still undeveloped embryo’s human future, our forward-looking intuition might, all by itself, come to approximate our backward-looking intuition. Consider this hypothetical example: Suppose that someone is on a trip with her spouse in Chiapas, Mexico, and she snaps a picture with their old-fashioned Polaroid camera. (As may be recalled, within minutes after each Polaroid snapshot, the finished print would develop in an envelope. After opening the envelope, the print could then be directly examined and passed around.) Now suppose further that the picture she has taken is of something reasonably believed to be unique and valuable (as we say each individual human being is unique and valuable). Let us say it was a photo of a jaguar darting out of the jungle for only a second, something not likely to happen again on their trip. But her husband in his eagerness grabs the envelope out of their camera and rips it open too quickly, thus permanently stopping the photo’s development at a very early stage. Since her jaguar picture is now forever gone (old Polaroids not retaining any negative or other copy), she is naturally very upset with him. Would this be a good defense for him to use? “Look, honey, I didn’t really do much harm anyway. Your picture was still at the brown smudge stage when I wrecked it. You surely don’t care much about brown smudges, do you?”

Not only would this argument be unacceptable to her, she would not even understand it; her spouse would appear to be talking gibberish. She thought she had a photo of a jaguar, not a brown smudge. The chemicals present just needed time to rearrange themselves to become a picture manifest to a viewer. So it is that a known and normative future can make continuity of identity intuitively compelling.

Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah has taken a giant step toward imagining just such an actual (here also individualized, and thus humanized) future for the unborn in writing that Americans debating abortion might consider that “those dead fetuses could have been . . . their children’s friends” (2006, 82). The capacity to be a friend is a universal trait of human beings and yet also a personalizing one, for every friend is a unique individual. To say that an embryo could be a friend is thus to envision it as a human individual even though nothing individual is yet known about him or her.

If we could analyze an embryo’s genetic structure and conclude, “This embryo will grow up to be a petite Asian woman with considerable artistic talent,” the continuity of human identity might become yet more intuitive. Still more powerfully: If a computer (despite any uncertainties of epigenesis) could someday read off visual images from her DNA and show us her likeness—even her very face—as a newborn infant, a little girl, a teenager, and an adult, opinions opposed to violence against embryonic human beings could more easily emerge. Real-time ultrasound images of fetal faces have already brought about more respect for prenatal life; how much greater might be the effect of faces with open eyes. Emmanuel Levinas has suggested that it is precisely the face of the Other that calls us to obligation (Levinas 1969), and neuro-behavioral studies of young children have lent support to his observations. Could we easily “look an embryo in the eyes” and decide to annihilate her?

The technological possibility of such images appears to be upon us. A story entitled “Building a Face . . . on DNA” was the lead in the Science Times section of The New York Times for February 24, 2015. Forensic investigators are already using “DNA phenotyping” as a supplement to artists’ sketches in developing rough visual profiles of suspects, especially where no one has witnessed a crime but traces of unexpected DNA have been left behind. Such a use of DNA makes sense in that (as the Times points out) identical twins look very much alike, and people often resemble their close relatives, bespeaking a strong genetic influence on the human face. The story contains examples of computer-generated faces paired with their actual counterparts, and the resemblance is striking though not perfect. Researchers Mark Shriver and Peter Claes are said to be seeking to improve the match by adding ever more genetic variables.

If adult DNA can lead to a sketch of that person’s face, surely gestational DNA (obtained in a non-injurious  way -- from the amniotic fluid, for example) could likewise be used to sketch the future face of an unborn child, for the content of the DNA in our cells changes but little during our lifetimes.

We may on the brink of another technological advance on the order of ultrasound, one that may generate an ever greater pro-life consensus.

--Richard Stith, J.D.(Yale), Ph.D.(Yale), is a research professor at Valparaiso University Law School, richard.stith@valpo.edu. This essay includes an adaptation of a small portion of his recent article “Construction vs. Development: Polarizing Models of Human Gestation,” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 24/4, 345-384 (December, 2014). A modified version is forthcoming in FIRST THINGS, Aug.-Sept., 2015.

 

 

 

REFERENCES

Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 2006. Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

Kinsley, Michael. 2006. “False Dilemma on Stem Cells.” Washington Post, July 7. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/07/06/AR2006070601554.

Levinas, Emmanuel. 1969. Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority, Translated by. Alphonso Lingis. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1969.

O’Donovan, Oliver. 1998. “Again, Who Is a Person?” On Moral Medicine. Edited by Stephen E. Lammers and Allen Verhey, 380–86. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Reiman, Jeffrey. 1999. Abortion and the Ways We Value Human Life. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Shields, Jon. May/June 2007. “The Stem Cell Fight.” Social Science and Modern Society 44: 18–21.

Stith, Richard. 2004. “The Priority of Respect: How Our Common Humanity Can Ground Our Individual Dignity.” International Philosophy Quarterly 44: 165–84.

Stith, Richard. 2014. “Construction vs. Development: Polarizing Models of Human Gestation.” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 24/4: 345–384. Johns Hopkins University Press.

 

 

#### Overruling Roe v. Wade: Lessons from the Death penalty
Here is a link to an article by Paul Linton on overruling Roe v. Wade. With the Supreme Court's grant of cert in Dobbs, this article couldn't be more timely.

Here is a portion of the abstract:

"This article argues that, just as Justices Brennan and Marshall misread the “signs of the times” regarding the death penalty in Furman, so, too, did the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade (1973), when it effectively struck down the abortion statutes of all fifty States. Roe placed great weight on the facts that seventeen States had liberalized their abortion laws and that leading professional organizations favored the repeal or substantial revision of state abortion laws. Roe, however, ignored that fact that the other thirty-three States had not liberalized their statutes and that, in thirty-one of those States, bills to relax or eliminate restrictions on abortion were introduced, but never enacted. Of even greater significance is that, in the almost fifty years since Roe was decided, the overwhelming majority of state legislatures have rejected Roe and its refusal to recognize that unborn human life is worth of protection. States have passed resolutions calling for constitutional amendments to overturn Roe, retained pre-Roe laws prohibiting abortion, enacted post-Roe laws that would prohibit abortion upon the overruling of Roe, enacted a myriad of statutes that prohibit abortions before viability and extended the protection of the law to unborn children in a variety of areas outside the context of abortion, including criminal law, tort law and health care law. The article submits that, just as the Court had to revisit the issue of the constitutionality of the death penalty in light of society’s reaction to Furman, so, too, the Court should revisit the issue of abortion in light of the country’s massive repudiation of Roe."

 

#### Pain as Fact and Heuristic
If you are like me, you aren't sure what "heuristic" means.  According to multiple sources, it is an experience-based technique for problem solving. In her new article,Pain as Fact and Heuristic: How Pain Neuroimaging Illuminates Moral Dimensions of Law, Professor Amanda C. Pustilnik argues against a simple understanding of physical pain as a justification for legal intervention.  She suggests that consideration of pain as a basis of legislation is a reflection of our empathy for the subject of pain.   

Professor Pustilnik "proposes a novel theory, the theory of “embodied morality,” to explain why statements about physical pain in law often serve a heuristic function. In describing the relationship between pain and empathy, the Article shows how moral conceptions of rights and duties are necessarily informed by human physicality and constrained by the limits of empathic identification. Pain measurement thus serves as the archetypal example of why it is necessary to understand embodied morality within the law to properly understand if, when, and how to adapt the findings of brain imaging to bodies of legal doctrine."

#### Papal effect on Life Chain?
Yesterday in Valparaiso, IN, we held our annual peaceful, prayerful Life Chain protest against abortion. A  Mennonite protester asked a Catholic, "What do you think of your Pope coming out pro-abortion?" This is how media-spun papal talk may be perceived at the grassroots level.

 

Interestingly, our numbers here were way down this year (though they were up slightly in a nearby town).  Perhaps someone should survey a sufficient number of yesterday's Life Chains around the country. If there was a significant decrease, this datum might provide some empirical evidence of the possible negative effect of the Pope's statements referred to recently by David Brooks and might encourage the Holy Father to be more cautious in the future.

#### Papers from the 2016 University Faculty for Life conference now available on-line
Many of the papers from the excellent 2016 University Faculty for Life conference held at Marquette are now available on-line at this link. Many thanks to Father Koterski S.J. for his work on editing these papers. There are several papers dealing with brain death and assisted suicide, among many other topics.

#### PAS and the Werther Effect: How one suicide leads to others
Legalized PAS and the Werther Effect

Evidence suggests that legalized PAS will result in a greater number of suicides more generally (and not simply amongst the population who opt for legalized PAS). We will have great difficulty, on the one hand, giving our and medicine’s approval to suicide as the solution to complex problems at the end of life while, on the other, getting the message across to youth and despairing others, that suicide does not solve the messy problems our lives pose to us. Well-regarded studies indicate that suicides lead to suicides. The phenomena has been repeatedly confirmed: awareness of the suicide of one person leads to suicides of similarly situated people. The greater the awareness, the larger the number of suicides of similarly situated people. In a 1974 article published in The American Sociological Review, Professor David Phillips named this The Werther Effect, after the suicidal hero of Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. Goethe himself wrote that, "My friends ... thought that they must transform poetry into reality, imitate a novel like this in real life and, in any case, shoot themselves; and what occurred at first among a few took place later among the general public ..." (As quoted in Phillips, The Influence of Suggestion on Suicide: Substantive and Theoretical Implications of the Werther Effect, American Sociological Review, 39:3 (Jun.1974) 340-54, p. 340.) Anecdotes indicate that many imitated the fictional Werther, yet, no one confirmed Goethe’s claim. In his work, Phillips shows that after publicized suicides, suicides increase amongst the populations aware of the suicide. Moreover, those who commit suicide share important similarities to the originating suicide. So, typically, when an older man’s suicide receives notice, older men commit suicide. Phillips’ work indicates that upon becoming aware of the suicides of similar others, certain people will resort to suicide, by, for example, killing themselves in single-car accidents. An allied phenomena documented by Phillips is the propensity of some, upon learning of murder-suicides, to commit murder-suicide by car and by plane. (See, e.g., The Influence of Suggestion on Suicide: Substantive and Theoretical Implications of the Werther Effect, American Sociological Review, 39:3 (Jun.1974) 340-54. Motor Vehicle Fatalities Increase Just after Publicized Suicide Stories, Science, 196:4297 (Jun 24, 1977) 1464-65. Motor Vehicle Fatalities and the Mass Media: Evidence Toward a Theory of Suggestion, The American Journal of Sociology, 84:5 ((Mar., 1979) 1150-74. Airplane Accident Fatalities Increase Just After Newspaper Stories About Murder and Suicide, Science, 201:4357 (Aug. 25, 19978) 748-50; Airplane Accidents, Murder, and the Mass Media: Towards a Theory of Imitation and Suggestion, Social Forces, 58:4, (June 1980), 1001-24.) Why would this be so? There are numerous explanations. Phillips himself proposes a theory of suggestion by which others come to view suicide as one of the available repertoire of responses to their situation. One overarching way of putting this is that our respect for life, including our own lives is something we share in common with one another. Those who regard their lives and the lives of others as disposable affect how others think about the value of human life, both theirs (in the case of suicide) and that of others (in the case of murder-suicide). A society that expands the typically highly constrained circumstances in which human life may be taken thereby undermines respect for life. Simply put, undermining respect for life leads to more deaths. More precisely, legalizing PAS will probably lead to more suicides, and not simply to more physician-assisted suicides. That is, with the legalization of PAS and the publication of deaths that occur by PAS, we ought to find an increase in suicide by single-car accidents, by walking in front of cars, and by various other means that one would not initially consider suicides. These suicides will not be of people who have been screened for depression, and so on, as the guidelines for PAS require. Rather, they will be of those who see others and society proposing suicide as a solution to some of life’s problems from which they suffer.

#### Patients in PVS may be consciously aware
Here is a link to an article in the National Right to Life News on a recent study in the Lancet. The study indicates that patients who have been diagnosed in a persisent vegetative state may be consciously aware. Here is a conclusion from the study: “These findings confirm that a population of patients exists who meet all the behavioral criteria for the vegetative state, but nevertheless retain a level of covert awareness that cannot be detected by thorough behavioural assessment.”

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/11/lancet-study-provides-more-evidence-that-patients-in-so-called-%e2%80%9cpersistent-vegetative-state%e2%80%9d-may-be-consciously-aware/

Richard M.

#### Paul Linton on Overruling Roe v. Wade
In light of the speculation about the impact of Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to replace Justice Kennedy, I thought I'd call attention to a good piece by Paul Linton that was published in University Faculty for Life's 2017 volume. Here is a link to the article. Here is the abstract--

"This paper addresses two issues that would arise upon the overruling of Roe v. Wade: First, whether pregnant women who self-abort or consent to an abortion performed upon them by a third party would likely be subject to prosecution in those States where abortion was illegal. Second, what the legal status of abortion would be in the States. The paper concludes, in Part I, that, based upon our history and experience women would not be prosecuted for abortion, and in Part II, that the immediate consequence of an overruling decision upon the legality of abortion would be very limited."

#### Paulsen on the Dobbs Draft
Here is an excellent piece by Michael Stokes Paulsen on the Dobbs draft. Here us his conclusion: "the Dobbs draft deserves three cheers — even if the cheering must remain tentative. The decision, if it turns out to resemble the draft, will join the pantheon of greatest Supreme Court decisions of all time."

#### Peace Psychology considers Abortion
Rachel MacNair talks about peace psychology and abortion

There were many great break-out session talks at the Life and Learning Conference earlier this month. I was unable to attend them all, but in the next few posts I will give a description of some of them that I did hear.

Because of the multidisciplinary nature of UFL, one can hear talks from a great many disciplines. One interesting talk was by psychologist Rachel MacNair, president of the Peace Psychology division of the American Psychological Association. McNair is heading an APA  presidential task force which deals with three areas: weapons drone, capital punishment, and abortion. She described the highly charged process of getting the abortion paper written.

The subtopics of the abortion paper are: domestic violence, coercion, and genocide/sex selection. It is written in part as a response to the APA Task Force on Mental Health and Abortion, which took a strong pro-abortion stance. MacNair hopes the paper will give a new perspective to some members of APA who are pro-abortion, but have not heard of the extreme psychological effects of abortion from a peace psychology approach.

MacNair is looking for reviewers of the three papers (Drones, Capital Punishment, Abortion). They can be from any discipline. If you would like to be a reader, e-mail her at rachel_macnair@yahoo.com.

 

#### Peer review and life issues
Many pieces of  legislation related to life are attacked as based on "junk science" or politicized science. One response to these attacks has been a Presidental Memorandum by President Obama on scientific integrity.  

One "proof" often offered in defense of a piece of research is that it has been published in a "peer reviewed journal."  Yet the preer review process itself has been a subject of debate.  The U.K. Parliment has issued a report on  peer review

#### Pennsylvania court decision on medical care for the disabled
On August 17, 2010, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that a guardian for a mentally disabled person is not permitted to refuse life-saving  medical treatment when the disabled person is not suffering from an end-stage medical condition or is not permanently unconscious. Here is a link to the opinion. http://oldsite.alliancedefensefund.org/userdocs/HockenberryOpinion.pdf

The Court found that Pennsylvania statutes prohibited the guardian from refusing such care. The Court acknowledged that there are many similar cases when state law would allow for such refusals. But in the situation presented to the Court (when the person is not competent to make medical decisions and has not appointed a health care agent), the Court found that the guardian is not permitted to authorize life-saving treatment . Here is a link to the Lifenews.com story, http://www.lifenews.com/state5395.html, and to the Alliance Defense Fund story.http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/News/Detail?ContentID=18406 The Alliance Defense Fund filed an amicus brief in the case on behalf of the disabled man.

The case is a welcome development, but it is important to note that the case is limited to the precise situation presented under the relevant Pennsylvania statutes. The Pennsylvania courts have, in other cases, ruled that guardians may withdraw treatment (which the courts consider to include artificial nutrition and hydration) when the patient is in a persistent vegetative state. The problem presented in Terri Schiavo-like situations still exists in Pennsylvania. For commentary on the Terri Schiavo case, see http://www.uffl.org/Vol14/myers-04.pdf      

Richard M.

#### Personhood and the Presidential Debates
UFL Member Michael New has a short post, Abortion and the 14th Amendment, over at NRO. He describes GOP presidential candidates’ responses to the question of whether they would support legislation, under Section Five of the 14th Amendment that would restore legal protection for unborn children. Professor New notes that only Mitt Romney failed to endorse the idea, instead saying he was concerned that such legislation would "provoke a constitutional crisis" and he would, instead, seek to advance the cause of the unborn through judicial appointment. You can watch the debate on youtube in 8 segments here.

I am troubled by what this foretells about President Romney's approach to life issues.  There are three reasons I think his response is inadequate.

First, while the Roe Court said that it could not define when personhood began, and rejected Texas' argument that the state legislature had implicitly done so, the Court did not address the possibility that Congress could define the unborn as persons.

Second, section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment explicitly relies on Congressional action to give effect to its protections.  While it is true that the Court does not look kindly upon Congressional attempts to interpret the Constitution in a manner different than a prior Supreme Court interpretation, see City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507, 536 (1997) (rejecting Congressional requirement that state statutes limiting free exercise to religion serve compelling state interests through narrowly-tailored means), the idea that legislation defining a previously undefined term in this constitutional amendment is hardly a call to abolish the federal judiciary. If a legislative definition including the unborn was passed and then challenged, this would provoke no more of a "constitutional crisis" than other instances where Congress asserts its full legislative authority and Court is asked whether they overreached.

Third and perhaps most importantly, it is hardly reassuring when a man who wants to be the leader of the free world seeks to avoid answering a serious political question with a verbal dodge that has no substance. Governor Romney has a very mixed record regarding his support of the unborn. As Professor New notes, this approach has been considered by many in the prolife community for a long time and reasonable minds can and have differed about its prudence. That said, no prolife commentator that I am aware of has suggested that the primary flaw in the approach is that the Court would consider it a constitutional crisis if a majority of Congress and the President believe that the unborn should be protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Governor should have reasonably anticipated the question and either explained why he thought this approach was unlikely to achieve the end sought, while identifying an approach with a greater chance of success or forthrightly repudiated the end of obtaining legal protection for the unborn and accepted whatever political consequences ensued.

After the past three years, I think all Americans (regardless of party) are tired of political double-speak on issues they care deeply about, be it Guantanamo Prison or abortion coverage in a national healthcare plan. Romney's answer evidences no serious thought about the issue of how we go about protecting the unborn, suggests a cynical attempt to persuade people that he is prolife when at best he just wants the issue to go away, or indicates an unhealthy deference to the judiciary. Regardless of which reading you give, none of these interpretations promise decisive Presidential leadership on the issue of abortion.

UFL member Christopher Wolfe discusses the expanding role of the judiciary in deciding key issues of American life in his book, That Eminent Tribunal. He took his title from a statement of Abraham Lincoln in his first inaugural address regarding the Supreme Court's opinion in Dred Scott:

"At the same time the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government, upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties, in personal actions, the people will have ceased, to be their own rulers, having, to that extent, practically resigned their government, into the hands of that eminent tribunal."

Perhaps Governor Romney should reread Lincoln's address.

#### Petals in the Dust movie
At the 2013 Life and Learning Conference in San Francisco there was a presentation by Nyna Pais Caputi about a film she and her husband were producing about female infanticide and other abuses of women in India. The film has now been released. You can find out more about it at the Petals in the Dust web page.

#### Peter Saunders on the BMA draft paper on withdrawing food and water
Here is a link to a blog post by Dr. Peter Saunders on a confidential draft paper from the British Medical Association on withdrawing food and water from patients with dementia, stroke and brain injury who are not imminently dying. The draft says that such patients who lack mental capacity but who are not imminently dying "can be starved and dehydrated to death in their supposed 'best interests'." Saunders states that "this is actually nothing other than euthanasia by stealth---euthanasia by the back door."  Saunders also states:  "Once we accept that food and fluids by tube is ‘medical treatment’ rather than basic care and that providing this basic sustenance to someone with a medical condition they would not find ‘acceptable’ is not in their ‘best interests’, then we are inviting professionals to devise a simple scheme whereby the starvation of large numbers of non-dying but expensive and ‘burdensome’ patients can be achieved simply and efficiently, and largely undetected, without involving the courts" .

#### Peter Singer interview and Wesley Smith's insightful rejoinder
Here is a link to a blog post by Wesley Smith discussing a recent interview with Peter Singer. In the interview, Singer repeats his controversial views that intellectually disabled human beings are less valuable than certain animals. Any other view, Singer states, is to engage in speciesism, that is, to prefer humans over other species.

Here is Smith's response:

"But human beings and animals do not inhabit the same moral realm. It is not wrong or discrimination to view and treat us differently than we do them.

Moreover, the very concept of “speciesism”–-used liberally in animal rights activism and bioethics–-is inherently and invidiously anti-human because it reduces us to so many carbon molecules with no inherent value beyond our cognitive capabilities at the moment of measurement....[Smith continues], speciesism philosophy, like utilitarianism, makes universal human rights impossible to sustain intellectually. Assuming such utilitarian values would destroy the principles of Western Civilization."

#### Peter Singer on Euthanasia and Mental Illness
Here is blog post by Alex Schadenberg on a recent article by Peter Singer on euthanasia and mental illness. Here is the concluding passage from Schadenberg's post--

"Euthanasia promoters, such as Singer ignore the reality that there is no proof that certain psychiatric conditions are untreatable and secondly, they ignore the fact that a symptom of some psychiatric conditions is suicidal ideation.

It’s saying we kill people with mental illnesses because they want to die, but they want to die because they need treatment. Meanwhile Bill C-7 did not require that the person try effective treatments.

We need a caring society, not a killing society."

#### Petition against female infanticide in China
As we all know, more female babies are aborted in China than males, in part due to the country’s forced-abortion policy.  Chai Ling of the organization All Girls Allowed has a petition against this violation of women’s rights; her effort is especially opportune given President Hu’s visit to the United States.  The petition can be found at http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/.

#### Petition on the right to life in international law
Here is a link to a petition on the right to life in international law.  This is a worthy effort and I hope that readers will consider signing.

#### Physicians' Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatments
For those interested in end-of-life issues and euthanasia, Christian Brugger has an important new post on the Culture of Life blog regarding Physicians' Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatments.  His post is entitled "Legalizing Euthanasia by Omission - And Making It a Doctor's Order ."  Dr. Brugger identifies the primary issue surrounding such documents as:  "POLST-type legislation removes the condition that a patient is terminally ill or diagnosed in a PVS before a refusal order is actionable. In other words, the new law permits any adult patient to refuse any treatment at any time for any reason in the event they lack decisional capacity; and health care professionals, directed by a doctor's medical order, ordinarily would be (and are) required to carry out the order."

Dr. Bruggers' post is a valuable contribution to public knowledge about the state of medical practice regarding end-of-life care.

#### Planned Parenthood abortion to adoption ratio
According to a CNSNews.com article, Planned Parenthood's recent annual report shows that they performed 148 abortions for every adoption referral it did.
CNSNews.com also asked Planned Parenthood how many of the 2,197 “adoption referrals to other agencies” Planned Parenthood made in fiscal 2012 actually resulted in adoptions, and if the organization planned to increase that number. Planned Parenthood had not responded by the time this story was posted.

#### Planned Parenthood opposes Utah bill banning sex-selection abortions
Here is a link to a LifeNews.com story describing Planned Parenthood's opposition to a bill in Utah that would ban sex-selection abortions.

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/12/03/planned-parenthood-opposes-bill-to-ban-sex-selection-abortions/

Richard M.

 

#### Planned Parenthood v. Casey at 20
Here is a good essay by Michael New reflecting on the 20th anniversary of Planned Parenthood v. Casey. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/25/casey-decision-at-20-pro-lifers-make-progress-on-abortion/

As New points out, the decision was a mixed blessing. The Court failed to take the anticipated step of overruling Roe v. Wade. But the Court did open the door to further incremental restrictions on abortion and this opening has led to pro-life gains.

Richard M.

#### Planned Parenthood's annual report
Here is a report by Kelsey Harkness of the Daily Signal, “12 Key Numbers From Planned Parenthood’s New Annual Report,” on Planned Parenthood’s 2015 annual report. It shows a decline in overall services and profits and an increase in the percentage of revenue from government sources. HT Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas (MN).

#### Poland's Abortion Law Complies with International Law
LifeNews.com has a well researched article arguing that the recently enacted law strictly limiting abortion in Poland complies with international law.  Current Polish law provides three exceptions for abortions: abortion is legal until the twelfth week of pregnancy where the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life or health (medical abortion); when prenatal tests or other medical findings indicate a high risk that the foetus would be severely and irreversibly damaged or suffering from an incurable life-threatening disease (eugenic abortion); or there are strong grounds for believing that the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.  The LifeNews article, Poland Abortion Ban Would Comply with International Law presents arguments developed by the European Centre for Law and Justice.

#### Political Change and Abortion
SSRN has a new article The Civic Underpinnings of Legal Change: Gay Rights, Abortion, and Gun Control.  Written by Professor Palma Joy Strand (Creighton), her thesis is that legal change occurs when individuals seeking change share their stories of how the failure to change harms them.  These stories facilitate the crafting of a group identity, which in turn facilitates group political activity advancing change.  She points to the success of the gay rights movements, and seeks to identify how it differs from the abortion-rights and gun-control movements.

Her analysis of the abortion-rights movement and her proposal for the crafting of a group identity is deeply flawed by her failure to candidly explore the evidence of how women experience abortion, including some of the most public supporters of the legal right. 

One striking example of this is the section entitled "The Silencing of Jane Roe (and Others)."  The author writes, "The plaintiff in Roe did not disclose even her name until a decade after the decision" and the only detail provided about Ms. McCorvey is a one-sentence footnote, "Norma McCorvey did not reveal her name until 1984."  There is no acknowledgement that Ms. McCorvey is now opposed to the holding of Roe v. Wade, regrets her role as Plaintiff in the case, and even went so far as to file a lawsuit seeking to have the courts reconsider the Roe opinion.  In a statement before a Congressional committee,  Ms. McCorvey said:

"I was seeking an abortion for myself, but my lawyers wanted to eliminate the right of society to protect women and children from abortionists. My lawyers were looking for a young white woman to be a guinea pig for a new social experiment. 

I wanted an abortion at the time, but my lawyers did not tell me that I would be killing a human being. I was living on the streets. I was confused and conflicted about the case for many years, and while I was once an advocate for abortion, I would later come to deeply regret that I was partially responsible for the killing of between 40 and 50 million human beings.

Do you have any idea how much emotional grief I have experienced? It was like a living hell knowing that you have had a part to play, though in some sense I was just a pawn of the legal system. But I have had to accept my role in the death of millions of babies and the destruction of many women’s lives."

Sandra Cano, the real name of the the woman who was Jane Doe in Roe's companion case, Doe v. Bolton, has said the she never wanted an abortion and that her lawyer in the case tried to force her to obtain one.  At the same Congression hearing where Norma McCorvey testified, Sandra Cano testified:

"I only sought legal assistance to get a divorce from my husband and to get my children from foster care. I was very vulnerable, poor and pregnant with my fourth child, but abortion never crossed my mind, although it apparently was utmost in the mind of the attorney from whom I sought help. At one point during the legal proceedings, it was necessary for me to flee to Oklahoma to avoid the pressure being applied to have the abortion scheduled for me by this same attorney.

Please understand, even though I have lived what many would consider an unstable life and overcome many devastating circumstances, at no time did I ever have an abortion. I did not seek an abortion, nor do I believe in abortion. Yet, my name and life are now forever linked with the slaughter of 40 to 50 million babies.

I have tried to understand how it all happened. How did my divorce and child custody case become the basis for bloody murders done on infants thriving in the wombs of their mothers? How can cunning, wicked lawyers use an uneducated, defenseless pregnant woman to twist the American court system in such a fraudulent way?

Doe has been a nightmare. Over the last 32 years, I have become a prisoner of this case. It took me until 1988 to get my records unsealed in order for me to try and find the answers to those questions and to join in the movement to stop abortion in America. When pro-abortion advocates found out about my efforts, my car was vandalized on one occasion, and at another time someone  shot at me when I was on my front porch holding my grandbaby."

Had Professor Strand more carefully studied the evidence of women's experience of abortions, she would find a very mixed record.  Some women affirm their experiences and characterize their response as one of "relief" that they are no longer pregnant. Some of these same women (and others) also report sadness, grief, and guilt. As Justice Kennedy wrote for the majority in Gonzales v. Carhart, "While we find no reliable data to measure the phenomenon, it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained. . . . Severe depression and loss of esteem can follow."

I am skeptical that many women will respond to the professor's call that they make public the stories of their abortion, and those who do will have as much to say about the pain and grief related to abortion.

#### Poll shows most Americans oppose most abortions
Here are links to stories from LifeNews, http://www.lifenews.com/2014/03/06/cnn-poll-58-of-americans-want-all-or-most-abortions-made-illegal/?pr=1, and the National Right to Life News,http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2014/03/wide-divide-over-abortion-nearly-60-oppose-all-abortions-or-would-allow-them-in-only-a-few-circumstances/ , discussing a recent CNN poll that shows that most Amerians oppose most abortions, and that most Americans oppose public funding of abortion. This confirms the results of other polls in recent years.

Richard M.

#### Pope Asks Catholic Bishops to Mobilize Against New Attacks
Meeting with U.S. bishops in Rome on January 19, 2012, Pope Benedict urged them to mobilize “every level of ecclesial life” against cultural and political trends that threaten “humanity itself.” He called on all Catholics “to offer public witness to their faith, especially with regard to the great moral issues of our time: respect for God’s gift of life, the protection of human dignity and the promotion of authentic human rights.” 

The pope emphasized:

Our tradition does not speak from blind faith, but from a rational perspective…. The Church’s defense of a moral reasoning based on the natural law …is not a threat to our freedom, but rather a “language” which enables us to understand ourselves and the truth of our being, and so to shape a more just and humane world. She thus proposes her moral teaching as a message not of constraint but of liberation, and as the basis for building a secure future.

The American bishops “pointed out that concerted efforts have been made to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices.” In response, the pope stated that “here once more we see the need for an engaged…Catholic laity…with the courage to counter a reductive secularism.”

In striking reconfirmation of Pope Benedict’s warning, on January 20 the U.S. government announced that next year even religious employees and institutions will have to contribute to health insurance plans that will provide free sterilization and contraception, including abortion-causing contraception (such as the drug “ella”).

Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan responded: “To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their healthcare [insurance] is literally unconscionable. It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom.” Sister Jane Marie Klein, Board Chair of the Franciscan Healthcare Alliance, called it “a direct attack on religion and First Amendment rights.”

Noted attorney and activist John Jakubczyk will provide details of this major church-state conflict on February 19 at the St. Paul Church Social Hall at 1855 Harrison Blvd. in Valparaiso, Indiana, from 1:15pm to 3:15 pm.  Attorney Jakubczyk, a dynamic and engaging speaker, is a former president of Arizona Right to Life and has long been active in defense of freedoms of speech and assembly throughout our nation. Following his presentation, there will be open discussion on how we can best responded to the challenges ahead. Joe and Ann Scheidler plan to attend. A light lunch and child care will be provided. All are invited, without charge.   

See full papal text at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2012/january/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20120119_bishops-usa_en.html  

 

#### Pope Benedict's speech on stem cell research
Here is a link to Pope Benedict's recent speech on stem cell research. The Pope spoke to participants at a conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture on this theme-- Adult Stem Cells: Science and the Future of Man and Culture. 

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2011/november/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20111112_stem-cells_en.html

While extolling the promise of scientific research, Pope Benedict emphasized the need to protect the dignity of human life: "Those who advocate research on embryonic stem cells in the hope of achieving such a result make the grave mistake of denying the inalienable right to life of all human beings from the moment of conception to natural death. The destruction of even one human life can never be justified in terms of the benefit that it might conceivably bring to another."

Richard M.

#### Pope Francis and abortion
It was trendy for a while to picture Pope Francis as "soft" on social issues that other popes were "hardliners" about, such as abortion. In his new Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis makes his most authoritative statement on abortion. Let's let him speak for himself:
213. Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenceless and innocent among us. Nowadays efforts are made to deny them their human dignity and to do with them whatever one pleases, taking their lives and passing laws preventing anyone from standing in the way of this. Frequently, as a way of ridiculing the Church’s effort to defend their lives, attempts are made to present her position as ideological, obscurantist and conservative. Yet this defence of unborn life is closely linked to the defence of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development. Human beings are ends in themselves and never a means of resolving other problems. Once this conviction disappears, so do solid and lasting foundations for the defence of human rights, which would always be subject to the passing whims of the powers that be. Reason alone is sufficient to recognize the inviolable value of each single human life, but if we also look at the issue from the standpoint of faith, “every violation of the personal dignity of the human being cries out in vengeance to God and is an offence against the creator of the individual”.

214. Precisely because this involves the internal consistency of our message about the value of the human person, the Church cannot be expected to change her position on this question. I want to be completely honest in this regard. This is not something subject to alleged reforms or “modernizations”. It is not “progressive” to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life. On the other hand, it is also true that we have done little to adequately accompany women in very difficult situations, where abortion appears as a quick solution to their profound anguish, especially when the life developing within them is the result of rape or a situation of extreme poverty. Who can remain unmoved before such painful situations?
 

#### Powers rejects Davis as "hero."
There is more anecdotal evidence that the consensus in the U.S. against legal late-term abortions is broadening. Most recently columnist Kirsten Powers, labelled a "liberal" by many, in a Daily Beast article called "I don't stand with Wendy Davis," came out against Davis's filibuster of a Texas bill that would make abortion after 20 weeks illegal. HT Janet Smith and LifeSiteNews.com.

#### PPACA and abortion
The controversy about health care reform and abortion continues. See Richard Doerflinger's analysis, "Abortion returns to the health care reform debate." http://usccbmedia.blogspot.com/2010/07/abortion-returns-to-health-care-reform.html

 His analysis deals with the recent discovery that certain statewide insurance plans (funding by federal money) covered elective abortions. After an outcry, the Obama Administration eventually made clear that abortion would not be covered under the state plans in question, except in narrow cases.

Here is Helen Alvare's analysis. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/07/1423 There have also been comments on the matter on the Mirror of Justice blog. http://www.mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/

This all illustrates the need to make clear in legislation (e.g., the proposed "Protect Life Act") that federal money should not fund abortion.

Richard M.

#### Predatory Open-Access Scholarly Journals
Frank Beckwith has come across a list of predatory online scholarly journals at Scholarly Open Access (which provides "critical analysis of scholarly open access publishing").  These are journals that don't meet the ethical or scholar standard of a reputable scholarly journal. The list is available here. The criteria for determining whether a journal is predatory are here.

#### Predicting an end to Roe v. Wade
On June 23, 2010, the Politico website published an intriguing item entitled "Predicting an end to Roe v. Wade." http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38899.html

 That prediction was made by Walter Dellinger a former Acting Solicitor General in the Clinto Administration and a long time professor at Duke. Dellinger's prediction was based on the idea that Roe has become a target of conservatives who view the decision as a symbol of judicial activism. Roe is certainly that, but Dellinger's prediction is one that few others seem to be making. In fact, Rachel Brand, a panelist at the Politico forum at which Dellinger's prediction was made, stated: "Frankly it has not occurred to me that that is of any kind of reasonable likelihood any time soon."

I think that Roe will ultimately fall but I am more inclined to side with Brand, at least in the short run.

Richard M.

#### Pregnancy in the case of rape?
People who are doing research in the area of pregnancy resulting from rape may want to be aware of and respond to a blog post on the Bioethics.net web page that calls into question the idea that the distress from rape suppresses ovulation. The article states: "As controversial as the subject of abortion is, irrespective of one’s personal opinion, it is important that the evidence supporting an assertion that rape inhibits pregnancy be based on credible evidence. Such evidence does not exist." HT Jeff Koloze

#### prenatal testing and down syndrome
Wesley Smith has an interesting post entitled "Mothers Refusing Prenatal Testing to Protect Babies with Down." http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/09/19/mothers-refusing-prenatal-testing-to-protect-babies-with-down/ Smith's post focuses on a recent article in the New York Times by Amy Julia Becker on "Why Prenatal Testing Harms as Much as it Helps." http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/deciding-not-to-screen-for-down-syndrome/

Becker's reflection is particularly poignant. She talks about how prenatal testing is often accompanied with pressure to abort and closes with this thought: "We declined prenatal testing because we would welcome another child with Down syndrome."

Richard M.

#### Prenatal Testing Sham
Here is a LifeNews story (first published on the Public Discourse website) on the use of prenatal testing to abort disabled babies. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/25/abortions-on-disabled-babies-the-prenatal-testing-sham/

Richard M.

#### Preventing Abortion of Children with Downs Syndrome
LifeSiteNews reports that the Charlotte Lozier Institute has just published a paper by Mark Bradford, of the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation USA called "Improving Joyful Lives: Society’s Response to Difference and Disability." According to LifeSiteNews, the paper "examines societal responses to individuals diagnosed with Down syndrome (Trisomy 21) and makes policy recommendations to further improve their lives."

#### Priebus and the March for Life
In the past couple of years there has been a debate among Republicans about how strong the party's official opposition to abortion should be. Some Republicans do not oppose legal abortions. Others are strongly pro-life. Others fall somewhere in between.

Some have suggested recently that the GOP should downplay its pro-life plank in order to focus on economic issues to win elections. Some in the pro-life movement are beginning to have doubts about the effectiveness for the protection of life of the coalition with the Republicans.

Amidst this debate, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has made an unprecedented decision to alter the agenda of the annual January RNC meeting to allow participants to go the March. In the past the meetings have conflicted with the March. Further, Priebus has had a bus arranged so that RNC participants can easily get from their hotel to the March. For more information see this Washington Times article.

#### Princeton conference on abortion
Here is a link to an upcoming conference at Princeton. http://uchv.princeton.edu/Life_Choice/ The conference, which is entitled "Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Fair Minded Words: A Conference on Life & Choice in the Abortion Debate," will be held at Princeton on October 15-16, 2010. The conference features well known speakers with a range of views on the underlying issues. Charles Camosy, Frances Kissling, Jennifer Miller, and Peter Singer are on the organizing committee. 

Richard M.

#### Pro Vita newsletter
I wanted to call attention to the release of Pro Vita, the online newsletter of University Faculty for Life. The newsletter is edited by Dr. Robert Gotcher. http://www.uffl.org/Newsletters/UFL_ProVita_Feb2012.pdf The link is to the inaugural issue of this new resource.

For many years, UFL's newsletter was edited by Father Thomas King, SJ and Frank Zapatka. Dr. Gotcher generously agreed to take on the task of reviving the newsletter. The first issue includes a variety of updates about UFL, highlights publications of UFL members, and notes a variety of useful pro-life resources. Please contact Dr. Gotcher (profgotcher@yahoo.com) with suggestions and contributions.

Richard M.

#### Pro-Life Fund at Notre Dame encounters problems
Here is a link to a distressing story about recent developments at Notre Dame. The Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life has been responsible for some encouraging initiatives, including the Vita Institute. Now, the University administration has decided to back out of an agreement that it entered into several years ago that permitted the Fund to operate under the direction of an independent committee.

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/03/university-of-notre-dame-shuts-down-the-fund-to-protect-human-life/

UPDATE: Here is a link to an opinion piece by Carter Snead on these developments at Notre Dame. Carter is the director of Notre Dame's Center for Ethics and Culture, which has supported many pro-life initiatives at Notre Dame. http://www.lifenews.com/2013/03/11/why-did-notre-dame-end-donations-to-the-fund-to-protect-human-life/

 

Richard M.

#### pro-life gains since the Casey decision
It has been 20 years since the Supreme Court's decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. On the 20th anniversary of this landmark decision, there has been much recent reflection about the impact of Casey. In LifeNews, Dr. Michael New notes Clarke Forsythe's recent National Review commentary on Casey and offers some comments of his own.  http://www.lifenews.com/2012/07/02/prolife-movement-has-made-big-gains-since-the-casey-decision/ Here is a portion of New's remarks: "During the past 20 years pro-lifers have succeeded in passing a number of incremental laws at the state level. Additionally, the pro-life position has made some impressive gains in the court of public opinion. Most important, the abortion rate has gone down. This is progress that the pro-life movement could sometimes do a better job advertising."

Richard M.

#### Pro-life group denied recognition at Johns Hopkins
A student group called Voice for Life was recently denied official recognition by the Student Government Association at Johns Hopkins University (Washington Times article here.). Students had complained that the group's advocacy was offensive. Legal action is being prepared.

#### Pro-life legislation in the states
Courtesy of the National Right to Life News and Mary Spaulding Balch, here is an encouraging story describing recent pro-life legislation in the states.   http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2012/03/a-snapshot-of-the-status-of-pro-life-legislation-in-the-states/

Richard M.

#### Pro-life news services
In answer to faculty and student inquiries, persons who wish to receive accurate news information on the life issues of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia may subscribe to daily email alerts from LifeNews.com (http://lifenews.com) and LifeSiteNews (http://www.lifesitenews.com).  Although the latter is based in Canada, it offers not only American, but also international news.

#### Pro-life positions at Healing the Culture
Healing the Culture, co-founded by Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., who was also a co-founder of UFL, has two openings, Programs and Events and Administrator. You may know a recent graduate or others who who might be interested.  Here is the email I received:

Do you feel called to work in a job where you can help transform our culture - and save lives at the same time?
Do you want a career where you're not just making a living, but also making a difference?
If so, you may be a perfect fit for working in the pro-life movement.  Job positions are now open at Healing the Culture - a pro-life group that's operated in the Seattle area since 2003.
Healing the Culture was co-founded by Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., and Camille Pauley, and produces state-of-the-art learning resources for both young people and adults.
Using timeless principles of logic, ethics, and justice, Healing the Culture has a proven track record of bringing about lasting conversions on the life issues.
If you're interested in working with a team that is on the cutting edge of cultural change, learn more here:
https://www.healingtheculture.com/about/job-opportunities/

#### Pro-Life Science and Technology Conference
Conference organizers are seeking submissions for this year’s Pro-Life Science and Technology Conference to be held at the Engineers Club in Dayton, Ohio on Saturday, 10 September 2011.  This annual conference is an ideal venue for students who wish to expand their academic portfolio with peer-reviewed presentation and publication opportunities.  Faculty colleagues and students involved in the sciences may wish to submit a paper proposal to conference organizers through this website: http://www.prolifetechnology.org/.  I would be happy to assist UFL colleagues with submitting a proposal and/or making arrangements for travel and accommodations once in the Dayton metropolitan area.

#### Pro-life social networking?
A colleague has a question about social networking sites used for the purpose of communicating life-affirming news.  Although social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn are wonderful means to communicate pro-life ideas and events, is there a social networking site specifically run by a pro-life group (preferably a 501-c-3, tax-exempt, non-profit)?  The major social networking sites are run by for-profit companies; pro-lifers who use such services run the risk of being subject to corporate strictures.  If you know of such a pro-life social networking service, please reply.

#### Pro-life voting
I don't think that I want to comment one way or the other on the question of whether those who regard abortion as a political issue of the greatest importance should vote for Mitt Romney, or more generally for Republicans, this fall (and in any case I definitely don't want to do so right now). I do, however, want to link a couple of very recent items that respond to the view that pro-lifers can/should vote for Barack Obama, or more generally for Democrats. From the other day, by Rick Garnett: "The abortion debate: lower rates or more-just laws?" (I'm pretty sure that in the past I've seen others making the same basic point regarding what "the abortion debate" is really about, and I think it's correct.) And from this morning, by Michael Fragoso: "Poverty, Abortion, and Budgets: Democrats for Life Need Better Arguments." (See also Fragoso's earlier columns on judicial conservatism, linked in the third-from-last paragraph of his column today.)

#### Professor Charles E. Rice, RIP
Professor Charles Rice--pro-life champion and long-time professor of law at Notre Dame Law School died last night. Here is a link to a book review of one of Charlie's s most recent books.

Eternal rest grant unto him,  O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

#### Prolife Center at St. Thomas helps gain court victory in Arizona
Teresa Collett, who is the president of UFL and the Director of the Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, contributed an amicus brief that helped defeat a challenge to an Arizona law that made sex- and race-selective abortions illegal. Here are some details in a article from the University of St. Thomas, which also highlights other contributions from the Prolife Center to the question of discrimination in abortion.

#### Prolife Center Videos
Here are a couple of videos of recent events at the Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas.

The first is a lecture by Prof. Tom Berg on “Patents on Human Life – The Limits of Private Property,” Nov. 3, 2015.

The second is a discussion of "MN Law, Fetal Body Parts, and Planned Parenthood Videos" with Autumn Leva, Director of Policy & Communications at Minnesota Family Council and University of St. Thomas Law Professor Teresa Collett

#### Prosecutors' Role in Assisted Suicide
SSRN has posted a new article, Justins v. the Queen: Assisted Suicide, Juries and the Discretion to Prosecute examining an Australian case and arguing that prosecutors should very rarely charge defendants in cases of assisted suicide.  The author notes that the British Crown Prosecution Service has developed guidelines for prosecutors regarding such charges.  The guidelines can be found here.  

Under the guidelines, there are sixteen factors that may support prosecution, including failing to discourage the suicide; assisting a person capable of committing suicide without assistance; or assistance rendered by a healthcare professional.  The suspect reporting the victim's suicide to the police and fully assisting them in their enquiries is one of the six factors supporting non-prosecution.

Faunce, Thomas Alured, Justins v. the Queen: Assisted Suicide, Juries and the Discretion to Prosecute (July 10, 2011). Journal of Law and Medicine, Vol. 18, pp. 706-715, 2011. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1883206

#### Protestanism and Suicide
Researchers at Warwick University have published a new paper entitled Knocking on Heaven's Door: Protestanism and Sucide.  According to the abstract:

We model the effect of Protestant vs. Catholic denomination in an economic theory of suicide, accounting for differences in religious-community integration, views about man's impact on God's grace, and the possibility of confessing sins. We test the theory using a unique micro-regional dataset of 452 counties in 19th-century Prussia, when religiousness was still pervasive. Our instrumental-variable model exploits the concentric dispersion of Protestantism around Wittenberg to circumvent selectivity bias. Protestantism had a substantial positive effect on suicide in 1816-21 and 1869-71. We address issues of bias from mental illness, misreporting, weather conditions, within-county heterogeneity, religious concentration, and gender composition. 

The paper can be found on SSRN here.

#### ProVita coming
I am feverishing working on the July edition of the UFL ProVita Online Newsletter.

Please send me any items you would like to be included to provitanews@yahoo.com.

I am especially looking for upcoming opportunities for scholarship, such as calls for papers, conferences, symposia, new publications, etc.

I am also looking for:

	News about UFL members
	New publications by members
	Other new scholarship that would be valuable to our readers
	Web pages and other online resources.

 

#### ProVita coming soon
In the next couple of weeks I will be working on the Spring 2014 issue of ProVita, the UFL online newsletter. If you have anything you would like to see included, e-mail me at provitanews@yahoo.com. Items I'm looking for:

	News about UFL
	Scholarly activities of UFL members
	Useful online resources
	New research on any side of the issues of abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide
	Anything else you think might be valuable to UFL members and other who are interested in pro-life scholarship.

#### ProVita coming soon!
I am beginning work on the April ProVita UFL Newsletter.  Please forward to me any items you would like to have included.  Here are the categories:

	UFL News
	Members in the News
	Member's publications and presentations
	Calls for papers and other opportunities
	Resources on the web
	Important scholarship (both pro-life and otherwise).
	Other news and analysis

I'm also looking for someone who would like to write a short (750 words) essay on the pro-life approach to the academic discipline of History.

If you have a contribution or would like to write the essay, e-mail me at provitanews@yahoo.com. Thanks.

#### ProVita coming soon!
The July edition of the ProVita online newsletter of the University Faculty for Life should be out in the next couple of weeks.

If you have anything you would like to be included in the issue, e-mail provitanews@yahoo.com.

Items we are looking for are:

	Recent important research in any discipline on life-related issues, whether supportive of life, neutral, or from an opponent to life.
	Upcoming conferences, symposia, calls for paper, etc.
	News about members of UFL.
	News about pro-life issues on campus.
	Anything else you think might be of interest to pro-life scholars.

Thanks.

#### ProVita Electronic Newsletter
The most recent edition of the Provita Electronic Newsletter of the UFL is now available online. Among the features is "Law and Life: the Dignity of Life and the Teaching of Law," an essay by Lucia H. Silecchia about how one promotes the culture of life within the academic discipline of the law.

This is another in our series of essays about the academic disciplines.  So far we've covered Literature and Law. In the next (April) issue, I'm hoping to have an essay on the discipline of History. If you would like to contribute an essay on that topic, contact me at provitanews@yahoo.com.

#### ProVita Newsletter
I am working on the next issue of ProVita Online.  If you have any of the following items to contribute, e-mail me at provitanews@yahoo.com. Here are some of the things I'm looking for:

	Activities of members (publications, conferences, talks, committees, etc.)
	Scholarly opportunities, such as upcoming conferences, calls, for papers, seminars, talks, etc.
	Online resources for pro life scholarship.
	Significant recent research

#### ProVita Newsletter coming in January
I will be working on the January edition of the ProVita newsletter for UFL. If you have any of the following to contribute, please e-mail them to provitanews@yahoo.com.

	Recent scholarly activities of UFL members.
	News about UFL members.
	Scholarly resources pro-life scholars might use.
	Upcoming conferences, seminars, events, calls for papers.

Thanks.

#### ProVita Newsletter coming in October
I am beginning to put together the October number of the ProVita Online Newsletter of University Faculty for Life.

If you have anything you think would be of use to UFL members or the public at large concerning pro-life scholarship and teaching, feel free to contact me at provitanews@yahoo.com.

I am looking for contributions in the following areas:

	News about and publication of UFL members.
	Conferences, conventions, symposia, calls for papers, etc..
	New scholarship about abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide, whether specifically pro-life or not.
	Useful resources and web sites.
	Anything else that might help us promote a culture of life on campus

Thanks for your contributions.

#### ProVita Newsletter coming soon
By the end of the month there will be another issue of ProVita Newsletter.

Please consider suggesting items to include.

I'm looking for:

	News about UFL
	Scholarly activities of member
	Good research web pages and other sources
	Scholar opportunities, including calls for papers, conferences, symposia, conventions, colloquia, talks and lectures.
	Scholarly articles from the pro-life perspective, neutral, or pro-abortion perspective.

I'm also looking for someone who could write a 600-750 essay on pro-life scholarship in the discipline of philosophy.

If you have anything or are interested in writing the essay on philosophy, e-mail me at:

provitanews@yahoo.com.

Thanks.

#### ProVita Summer edition in the works
I am beginning work on the summer edition of the online ProVita Newsletter of University Faculty for Life. Please send contributions in the following categories to the following e-mail address: provitanews@yahoo.com.  The more contributions we get, the better the newsletter!

	UFL news (including chapter news).
	The scholarly activities of UFL member.
	Useful web sites or other research sources.
	Upcoming scholarly opportunities, such as conferences, calls for paper, new journals, conventions, seminars, meetings, etc.
	Campus news (things that are happening on campus that are related to life issues)
	Recent scholarship relevant to life issues, whether pro or con.

 

#### Push for Abortion Training in Faith-based Medical Schools
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists supports comprehensive preclinical education about family planning that includes contraception and abortion for medical students.  Furthermore, the Association of Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics (APGO) have set standards for medical students on the topics of contraception and abortion.   The rationale is that many women in the United States seek these reproductive services and medical students should be knowledgeable about them.   However, providing education about contraception and abortion in a faith based medical school and in particular a Catholic medical school is problematic, since both contraception and abortion is contrary to the Catholic faith.  Although all students at Catholic faith-based medical schools should be knowledgeable about the topics of contraception, sterilization, and abortion, it is not appropriate for that school to provide clinical training in those areas.  I find it remarkable that medical school admission boards at faith-based medical schools do not look for a better fit for potential students - - i.e., students that fit their mission. There are many medical schools in the United States that provide that type of clinical training.  Why cannot the five Catholic medical schools provide some diversity in medical education and be truly reflective of their Catholic mission?  See recent study conducted at Loyola University Strich School of Medicine (M. Guiahi, K. Maguire, Z.T. Ripp, R.W. Goodman, and K. Kenton.  “Perceptions of family planning and abortion education at a faith-based medical school,” Contraception (2011): E-published Ahead of Print).  This study found that the majority (71%) of fourth year medical students at Loyola felt that they had inadequate training in abortion.  Approximately half of the fourth year students desired more abortion training during their clerkship.  The authors stated that the results showed that the majority of students felt that their education and training in contraception, sterilization and abortion was inadequate.  The authors also commented that the education would not meet the APGO standards for medical education.

#### Quebec approves euthanasia
Here is LifeNews story reporting on Quebec's recent approval of voluntary euthanasia. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/06/05/quebec-approves-bill-legalizing-euthanasia-on-demand/

Here is a link to commentary by Wesley Smith,  http://www.lifesitenews.com/author/wesley_smith/ . 

Richard M.

#### Questions women ask before getting an abortion
RH Reality Check, an abortion-rights blog, features news and commentary that can be quite provocative.  For example, one post entitled A Different Type of Sidewalk Counseling provides commentary on what women seeking abortions ask other women who they know have had abortions.  The questions the author lists undercuts claims by abortion rights advocates that women know all they need to know when they walk in the door of an abortion clinic.

#### Quick addendum to clinic escort story
I recently blogged about the Ninth Circuit opinion requiring police to enforce the "Mother May I" or "speech free zones" against clinic escorts as well as sidewalk counselors here.  Just discovered another story about Rev. Hoye's prolife efforts in The Catholic Voice of Oakland Diocese.  It seems he was behind the placement of several billboards in California saying "Black is Beautiful" and directing people to "toomanyaborted.com/ca".  The billboards are great and apparently very effective.

#### R.I.P. Barbara Willke
Here is a link to a Lifenews.com story about the death of Barbara Willke, alongtime leader in the pro-life movement. Barbara Willke (along with her husband Dr. Jack Willke) received University Faculty for Life's Smith Award in 2007.

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/15/barbara-willke-godmother-of-modern-pro-life-movement-passes-away/

Richard M.

#### Rachel MacNair on "Our Pro-Life Future"
Rachel MacNair, a frequent speaker at University Faculty for Life conferences, has just published a very good piece in the June/July 2018 issue of First Things. Her essay is entitled "Our Pro-Life Future." I can't locate an on-line version but I encourage readers to find a copy. MacNair focusses on positive trends--declines in the number of abortions and in the abortion rate, and the dramatic decline of women having first time abortions. After noting various ways to appeal to those who are not in the pro-life camp, she concludes--"The pro-life movement is in very good shape. The trends are all in the right direction, and the signs indicate that they'll continue in the right direction. If we recognize this, we can take full advantage of basic principles of the innate human desire for cognitive consonance--and the radiance of moral truth--in order to speed up the process."

#### Rachel Morrison on the Biden Administration's Response to Dobbs
Here is a link to a good article by Rachel Morrison detailing the Biden Administration's response to the Dobbs decision.

#### Rachel Morrison on the June Medical Services case
Here is a link to a very good article on the June Medical Services case. June Medical Services involves the constitutionality of Louisiana's admitting privileges law. The case will be argued before the US Supreme Court later this Term.

#### Randy Beck on "Fetal Viability and Twenty-Week Abortion Statutes"
Professor Randy Beck (University of Georgia School of Law) has written a series of terrific articles exploring the "viability" line created in Roe. Wade.  Here is a link to his recent article entitled "Fetal Viability and Twenty-Week Abortion Statutes." The article is well worth a careful read.

Here is his conclusion:

"For over four decades, the Supreme Court has enforced a rule concerning the duration of abortion rights that has never been justified in constitutional terms. By the standards of Casey, in the absence of a principled justification, the viability rule is 'no judicial act at all.' The Court should take the opportunity afforded by the new wave of 20-week abortion statutes to revisit the duration of abortion rights. Moving away from viability as the controlling line in pregnancy would further legitimate state interests and begin to address the most extreme element of the Court’s abortion jurisprudence." 

 

 

#### Rasouli decision from the Ontario Court of Appeals supports the role of the family in medical decisions
Here is report on the recent Rasouli decision from the Ontario Court of Appeals. http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/ontario-appeals-court-rules-doctors-dont-have-right-to-remove-life-support The court found that doctors didn't have the right to withdraw medical treatment despite the family's objection. Here is commentary from the National Right to Life website. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/07/toronto-star-agrees-with-rasouli-decision/#more-2916

Richard M.

#### Re-Reading Roe v. Wade
Yesterday was the 44th anniversary of the Court's decision in Roe v. Wade. Here is a link to my article entitled "Re-Reading Roe v. Wade," which was presented at Washington & Lee Law School at a conference organized by Sam Calhoun.

#### Reaching out to Hispanic voters
Encouraging Hispanic immigration is a double-edged sword for the GOP: It may increase GOP votes in the short run, but it may increase Democratic voters in the long run.

And, frankly, it is hard to imagine any bid the GOP could make on immigration or almost any other Latino issue that the Dems could not meet and raise.

One thing the GOP can offer Hispanics (and black voters, too) that the Dems can't top is that it is more pro-life, pro-family, pro-God. It better start pushing, wisely, that strength. For example, it could call attention to the extremism of our president and the Democratic platform on the social issues, as is done so well in the link below.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevinwax/2012/10/24/10-questions-a-pro-
choice-candidate-is-never-asked-by-the-media/

#### Recap of Prolife Arguments on Abortion
Provocative professor and Townhall Columnist, Mike Adams, has posted an abbreviated version of a speech he gave to a national gathering of college student on rebutting arguments in favor of abortion.  The first installment is entitled "Killing Six Birds with One Stone."  The second and final installment entitled Poverty, Rape and Abortion.

#### recent AP story on new abortion legislation
Here is a report ("Wave of anti-abortion bills advance in the states") from the Associated Press on new legislation restricting abortion. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ANTI_ABORTION_SURGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Richard M.

#### recent essays on conscience
Here are two recent essays on conscience. One (The Progressive Case for Conscience Protection) is by Rob Vischer on The Public Discourse website. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/03/2915 The other (ACLU Has Major Misunderstanding of Abortion Conscience Law) is by Matt Bowman. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/03/09/aclu-has-major-misunderstanding-of-abortion-conscience-law/

Richard M.

#### Recent material on assisted suicide abuses
A June 7, 2019 email from Not Dead Yet, titled "An Open Letter to Maine Governor Mills: Veto Assisted Suicide Law LD 1313”, contained a pdf commentary on assisted suicide abuses which will interest all pro-lifers.
Please see “Some Oregon and Washington State Assisted Suicide Abuses and Complications”, which can be found here: https://dredf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Revised-OR-WA-Abuses.pdf.

#### Recent South Dakota legislation/3-day waiting period and counseling requirements
Here are a couple of reports on the legislation recently signed in South Dakota. The law, which is to go into effect in July, requires a 3 day waiting period and also requires that women seeking an abortion receive counseling at crisis pregnancy centers. Here is the Lifenews report. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/03/22/south-dakota-governor-signs-bill-for-72-hour-abortion-wait/ Here is a report from the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23sdakota.html?_r=1

Richard M.

#### Refining my post on Abortion, fetal tissue, and rape
A reader of this blog on Facebook expressed concern that my post yesterday, "Abortion, fetal tissue, and rape" was encouraging rape victims to submit to abortions.  Let me be clear.  My post is not about encouraging rape victims to have abortions. I believe that it takes courage and generosity to continue to carry a child conceived by rape, and that we should affirm, support and encourage women who do so.  

My post focused on the use of DNA from aborted children to convict rapists, and particularly those who rape young girls. In cases where the girl continues her pregnancy, we can get a DNA sample from the baby after she gives birth, or even during the pregnancy if other reasons exist for amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling. In cases, however, where the young girl has an abortion, we want to preserve a DNA sample to help law enforcement find and punish the rapist.  That is why I support the Kansas law requiring abortion clinics to preserve fetal tissue from abortions performed on victims of statutory rape and submit tissue samples to state crime labs for use in criminal investigations.

#### reflections on a short story by Joyce Carol Oates
Courtesy of Frank Zapatka (Emeritus Professor at American U), here are some reflections on a short story by Joyce Carol Oates.

Joyce Carol Oates, non-practicing Catholic, self-professed atheist, friend of fellow Princeton faculty member Peter Singer, prolific fiction and non-fiction writer and a 2010 National Humanities medalist, published in 2009 a short story collection titled Dear Husband (Harper Collins).  In one of its stories, “The Glazers,” there are several prominent references to embryonic stem cell research and cloning found in the story’s background.  

The fatuous, wealthy father of the single parent, significantly dysfunctional Glazer family is the “’longtime Republican’… ‘moderate conservative’… ‘Douglas’….‘Doug’” as he wishes to be called (261-262) is “a ‘self-made business success’ whose real interest was in ‘cutting-edge’science: molecular biology, genetics, biomedicine.” He has endowed a chair at Yale (the “‘Glazer Distinguished Professorship”’) as well as “fellowships at the New Horizon Institute for Biological Research” (265). His twenty-one year old son, Glenn, who eventually intends “to study biomedical law”—‘an entirely new field just opening up’” (266), has brought Penelope to his New Jersey home to meet his family. The couple met “in a seminar in bioethics….at a highly competitive Ivy League university” ([260]; 265). The seminar is “taught by a world-renowned professor whose columns appeared frequently on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times (266). In the seminar Glenn engages the professor “in passionate discussions of the ethics of, euthanasia, genetic engineering, cloning” (266). No direct indication of how either stood on these issues is made, however.

Later on the terrace of the “large and impressive…French Normandy”     Glazer home, Doug “expound[s ] on the shortsightedness of the present[GW Bush] administration’s policy regarding stem cell and other ‘cutting edge’ biomedical research (269). Where Doug stands on these issues is clear; moreover, he means to make money on such promising research, as does Glenn and his “twenty-six year old brother, Craig (Harvard College, Yale Law). Craig, “just hired by one of [Doug’s] business associates is already doing so practicing law “dealing with this cutting edge new field—‘synthetic biology….Ever hear of that?’” he asks Penelope (272).

Oates’ principal concern in this story is in the dysfunctional Glazer family and in Penelope’s reaction to them. How the author feels personally about these back-ground issues is not evident in the story. What is evident is that several  Glazer family members are interested in making money in this “cutting edge new field” and the 3rd person narrator through vivid characterization and effective repetition criticizes “their get in on the ground floor ambitions” without preaching.

posted by Richard M.

#### Reflections on Roe v. Wade and the March for Life
Even though the New York Times and other media outlets routinely ignore the March for Life, the annual March on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade is one of the most significant phenomena in recent American history. In its 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court thought it settled the abortion controversy. The New York Times thought so too. Yet, over 40 years later, hundreds of thousands of selfless Americans show up in Washington, D.C. in the middle of winter to protest the Court's decision in Roe v. Wade and to support the culture of life.

In Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the Supreme Court invalidated the abortion laws of every state in the Union and effectively required abortion on demand during all nine months of pregnancy. In later decisions (e.g., Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992), the Court gave the states more freedom to regulate abortions. But despite what some say, the Casey decision was not a moderate decision. States still have no power to prohibit abortion at any time during pregnancy.

The legal defects in Roe v. Wade were apparent from the very beginning. John Hart Ely, a supporter of abortion rights, noted that Roe "is bad because it is bad constitutional law, or rather because it is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be."  The Court simply invented a constitutional right to abortion. Moreover, the Court ignored the reality that every abortion takes the life of an innocent human being. The Court, in a false gesture of humility, said that it didn’t need to decide the difficult question of when life begins. But the Court did decide this question when it concluded that unborn children have no rights that the state is bound to respect.

Everyone understands that Roe is not a plausible reading of the Constitution. The decision is, as Michael Paulsen has noted, a running joke in constitutional law circles. Yet, the Court has continually reaffirmed Roe, in large part it seems because some of the Justices think it would undermine the Court's authority to admit its mistake.

The errors in the Court's "reasoning" in Roe and in Casey's ruling to stand by Roe lest people lose confidence in the Court have been well documented for many years. (I summarized these errors in an article I wrote on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2433630 )

I think that eventually the Court will overrule Roe v. Wade. This development will undoubtedly be due in significant part to the efforts of those who have participated in the March for Life for all of these years.

In our system, "We the People" have the final word on the great questions of life and death. Judges can't really "settle" these issues. This sometimes takes decades but eventually the will of the people will prevail.

We can, I think, see the tide turning. The Court's abortion decisions have not been accepted. There is constant resistance to Roe among judges, legislators, academics, and in the broader culture. Roe is in many respects an outlier. For example, unborn children have increasingly been accorded protections in other areas of the law. In a recent opinion holding that Alabama's chemical endangerment statute protected the unborn, one of the Justices on the Alabama Supreme Court commented: "The decision of this Court today is in keeping with the widespread legal recognition that unborn children are persons with rights that should be protected by law. Today, the only major area in which unborn children are denied legal protection is abortion, and that deal is only because of the dictates of Roe. Roe has become increasingly isolated on this point, as on many others."

And Roe hasn't been accepted in the broader culture. As Clarke Forsythe noted in his excellent book on Roe v. Wade, "What makes abortion uniquely controversial is that the Justices have sided with a small sect--7 percent of Americans--who support abortion for any reason at any time. And the Justices have for forty years prevented the 60-70 percent of Americans in the middle from deciding differently. The conflict between public opinion and the Supreme Court's nationwide policy is one key reason why Roe is uniquely controversial."

The March for Life is evidence of this. Every year, huge crowds filled with young people assemble in Washington, D.C. to protest the Court's decision and to support the culture of life. These hundreds of thousands understand that the Court didn't settle this issue. They understand that despite what the Court said in Casey the Court does not “speak before all others for their constitutional ideals.” In addition, the marchers understand that there is hope for the eventual reversal of Roe v. Wade and for the ultimate protection of the unborn.

Although the March for Life is largely ignored by the media, the energy and passion and joy of those who stand for life are helping to keep the issue abortion alive. The errors of Roe v. Wade and the decision’s negative consequences are more apparent with every passing year. In the end, the truth about the humanity of the unborn and of the importance of protecting the dignity of every human life will prevail.

#### Registration now open for V Pro-Life World Congress
The Organizing Committee for the V Prolife World Congress has announced the opening of registration for this important event, to be held in San José, Costa Rica from October 28 to 30, 2011. Past Congresses were held in Madrid (2003), Lima (2005), Mexico (2007), and Saragossa (2009). The activity will be held at the Universidad Latina in Costa Rica’s capital city.

Confirmed speakers include Dr. Thomas Hilgers, inventor of Naprotecnology (treatment for sterility that does not present the ethical problems with in vitro fertilization); Dr. Felipe Vizcarrondo, pediatrics and masters in Bioethics;  Lic. Adolfo Castañeda, Director of Educational Issues of Humana Life International who is a moral theologian, master in Dogmatic Theology; Mons. Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life and author of numerous articles on bioethics, medical ethics, and legal medicine; Dr. Jorge Scala,  Juris doctor, author of numerous books and;  Terrence McKeegan, J.D, Juris doctor, in charge of weekly publication Friday-Fax and Vice-president of C-Fam organization.

The Congress will include subjects such as “The dignity of the human person and his ontological dimension”; “An integral vision of human sexuality”; “Gender ideology as power tool”, among others. The case of Mexico regarding the legalization of abortion and that of Costa Rica with regards to the demand before the Interamerican Court of Human Rights for the legalization of in vitro fertilization will be discussed. 

As affirmed by Alejandro Leal, doctor in Human Genetics, professor of Bioethics and President of the Congress, “this space will be for Costa Rica and for all participating countries an occasion for the exchange of experiences and of intense learning”.  

For more detailed information, go the web page of the Congress www.costarica2011.org.

#### Renewed campaign for assisted suicide
Public Discourse blog has a new posting by Adam MacLeod, Assisted Suicide: the Forgotten Front in the Fight for Life.  He mentions the Massachusetts ballot initiative that was certified for the ballot by the state attorney general last week.  Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine is among the initiative supporters.  During her tenure as editor she authored an editorial arguing in favor of such laws. Dignity 2012 is the organization coordinating supporters. The Massachusetts Catholic Conference is among the many opponents of the initiative.

In his blog post at Public Discourse, Professor MacLeod argues that there is little evidence from the Oregon experience that physician assisted suicide is requested by parties due to "inadequate pain control or concern about it."  Even strong proponents of assisted suicide have conceded this point.  “Unrelieved or unrelievable pain is not often the major or sole reason for requests for physician-assisted death. Physicians report that unrelieved pain is infrequently the only reason cited by patients who request or receive physician-assisted suicide or voluntary active euthanasia.” Timothy E. Quill et al., The Debate over Physician-Assisted Suicide: Empirical Data and Convergent Views, 128 Annals of Internal Medicine 552 (1998).  Professor MacLeod fails to mention reports that pain management has deteriorated in Oregon resulting in more people dying in pain. According to one report, there were almost twice as many dying patients in moderate or severe pain or distress, as there had been prior to Oregon's assisted suicide law being used. Fromme et al. Increased family reports of pain or distress in dying Oregonians: 1996 to 2002, 7 J.Palliative Medicine 431(2004). There is a large number of Oregonian doctors opposed to this practice.

The second argument that Professor MacLeod makes is that "prohibiting suicide is not the same as forcing people to live beyond their time."  The entire area of over-treatment or futile care is one that is receiving significant attention, in part due to healthcare cost and in part due to concerns that such care is not in the best interest of the patient.  That said, we must be very careful as Professor MacLeod warns, that we not confuse avoiding overtreatment with denial of proper treatment.

His final argument against assisted suicide initiatives rests on the communal nature of human beings and that fact that the death of any individual has significance to others.  It is false to claim that the decision to take your own life (or to assist another in doing so) is purely a private matter, and the law should not treat it as one.

Professor MacLeod's post is a helpful review of the arguments of both sides and well worth the time to read.

#### Rep. Franks introduces legislation to ban abortion in DC at 20 weeks
Here is the opening of a recent LifeNews.com story about a bill (The DC Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act) that was introduced to ban abortion in DC after 20 weeks.

"Rep. Trent Franks, an Arizona Republican, has introduced a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on scientific evidence showing unborn children feel pain. Frank is the sponsor of the D.C. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act which would ban abortion in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks gestation, based on scientific research that shows unborn children feel pain past that point in development. Currently in the District, abortion is permitted for any reason until the moment of birth."

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/26/congressman-files-bill-to-ban-abortions-based-on-fetal-pain-science/

Richard M.

#### Report on challenge to Texas law requiring sonogram before abortion
Here is a report on the pending lawsuit challenging the Texas law requiring that women be able to view a sonogram before obtaining an abortion. A ruling is expected by September. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/07/judge-hears-arguments-over-texas%e2%80%99-new-sonogram-law/#more-2963

Richard M.

#### Report on ignored research about negative effects of abortion
The Institute for Marriage and Family Canada has issued a report called "Interconnected
 How abortion impacts mothers, families and our society,"on neglected research that shows how abortion can negatively affect the lives of those who are involved, according to LifeSiteNews.com. Among the areas covered are mental health and relationships and sexuality.

#### Report on the 12th annual Cardinal O'Connor conference at Georgetown
Here is an article from the National Right to Life Committee on the 12th annual Cardinal O'Connor conference at Georgetown University. The conference attracted over 500 attendees. There was a tremendous line-up of speakers at the conference and the student organizers deserve much credit .  http://www.nrlc.org/NewsToday/CardinalConference3.html

Richard M.

#### Reproductive Rights Blog
In 2007,  Caitlin E. Borgmann, another former Center for Reproductive Rights lawyer turned law professor, established the Reproductive Rights Prof Blog.  The blog contains this description of its purpose and scope:

Welcome to the Reproductive Rights Prof Blog, a member of the Law Professor Blogs network.  This blog aims to provide resources, news, and information of particular interest to law school professors who teach and write in the area of reproductive rights.  While there are several other blogs that focus on reproductive rights generally, or some specific aspect of this broader topic, this blog is unique in its legal and academic focus.  It will feature news that is likely to be of particular interest to academics and litigators.  Of course, it will also provide announcements of conferences and abstracts of recent scholarship on reproductive rights topics.  The permanent resources are selected with a view to what is likely to be particularly helpful to those researching reproductive rights for scholarly purposes.  (Emphasis added.)

The resource list on the left side of the screen is quite extensive and may be of interest in crafting abortion-related courses.

#### Reprohealthlaw
Teresa Collett mentioned that the REPROHEALTHLAW-L listserv of the Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Programme has been replaced by the reprohealthlaw blog.  It appears to be updated once a month with substantial posts on court decisions, resources, news, fellowships and jobs, mostly from a pro-abortion perspective. You may not want a job as the Executive Director of Canadians for choice, but much of the information is very valuable for research purposes.  You can sign up to receive updates by e-mail.

#### Requirements of Informed Consent Limit Autonomy?
Arthur Kaplan argues that opposing telemedicine abortion is irresponsible here. He argues that abortion providers have a right to determine the information that a patient needs with no "interference" by state legislatures.  Curiously he justifies this return to a paternalistic notion of medical cares by a demand for patient autonomy. It appears he has little knowlege of the practices of many abortion clinics that assume a woman has made her decision when she enters the door of an abortion clinic and needs nothing more than a swift procedure and to be on her way.  These sort of practice was documented by the South Dakota Task Force on Abortion available here.

#### Responding to Radical Autonomy Claims
Erika Bachiochi has a wonderful new post on the Public Discourse Blog entitled 40 Years Later: How to Undo the Autonomy Argument for Abortion Rights. In the post, she responds to the autonomy argument made famous by Judith Jarvis Thomason in A Defense of Abortion.  

She argues, like UFL member Frank Beckwith who she quotes, that the act of conceiving a child creates unique responsibilities that include continuing the pregnancy through birth. She notes that while American law does not impose a legal requirement that every citizen act as a Good Samaritan to those in danger, it does require that those who are responsbile for creating the danger must act to rescue the victim.  "[P]arents share an affirmative legal duty toward their unborn child who, in his vulnerability, is utterly dependent upon their help and assistance—even more so than their born child, for whom other competent adults could care."

The length of the article makes it ideal for classroom use, and I recommend it highly.

#### Returning the question of abortion to the people
Ed Whelan has posted a short article, Defend our Laws: Justice Matters as part of the ten-part series on Liberty, Justice and the Common Good at Public Discourse. He presents a strong prolife agenda for the next president.  Whelan writes:

"They should educate the public that Roe imposes a radical regime of unrestricted abortion, for any reason, all the way up to viability--and, under the predominant reading of obtuse language in Roe's companion case, Doe v. Bolton, essentially unrestricted even in the period from viability until birth.

They should explain how Roe has poisoned American politics and culture for nearly four decades by preventing Americans from working together, through an ongoing process of peaceful and vigorous persuasion, to establish and revise the policies on abortion governing their respective states.

They should discuss how Roe's manifest defects have been harshly criticized even by abortion supporters (see point 2 of my 2005 Senate testimony).

They should point out that Roe has fueled endless litigation in which pro-abortion extremists challenge modest abortion-related measures that state legislators have enacted and that are overwhelmingly favored by the public--provisions, for example, that seek to ensure informed consent and parental involvement for minors and bar atrocities like partial-birth abortion."

While these proposals do not include the establishment of constitutional protection for the lives of the unborn, each step points toward allowing the people, either through referendum or through their elected representatives, to decide whether the unborn are members of American society.  This is a vital first step.

#### Rev. John Conley's America Column
In January, UFL member Rev. John J. Conley, SJ, titular of the Henry J. Knott Chair of Philosophy and Theology at Loyola University Maryland, began work as a monthly columnist for America, the Jesuit weekly magazine of opinion. Many of his subsequently published essays have dealt with pro-life themes.

“An Unwelcome Anniversary” (February) dealt with achievements of the pro-life cause since the Roe decision (the strengthening of the case against abortion through new genetic knowledge and the routine use of the sonogram) and the setbacks (the rise of physician-assisted suicide and academic apologies for infanticide.)

“A New Consistent Ethic?” (March) explores how a new emphasis on the rights of conscience of health-care workers, institutions, employers, and taxpayers has created a consistent ethic-of-freedom paralleling the older consistent ethic-of-life.

“Dignity in the Dock” (April) examines the effort by influential American philosophers to remove the concept of dignity from ethical and political discourse. Such a removal is part of a broader campaign to justify abortion and euthanasia.

“Coining Perfection” (June) critiques the new search for the genetically perfect child as a lethal assault upon the disabled and as a tragic abandonment of the moral perfection once prized by the sage and the saint.

#### Rev. Joseph W. Koterski SJ,  R.I.P.
All of us in University Faculty for Life are still reeling in shock about the passing of Father Joe Koterski SJ. Father Koterski died on August 9, 2021 while preaching a retreat. Here is a link to a story about his passing in the Fordham News.

Father Koterski was a giant. He was a holy priest who lived out his religious vocation as a member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). He was an integral member of many academic organizations, including service as the President of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars and as the long-time Secretary of University Faculty for Life. In reality, he was the glue who held  University Faculty for Life together for many years.

He was a learned scholar who gave selflessly to many apostolates.

There will be much more to follow.

 

#### Review of 2015 symposium
The Human Life Review recently posted a symposium reviewing the pro-life movement in 2015. Among the contributors are: Eric Metaxus, Kristan Hawkins, Hadley Arkes, William McGurn, Clarke Forsythe, Rita Marker, Tim Goeglein & Doug Napier, William Murchison, Mary Meehan, Wesley Smith, and Helen Alvaré,

#### Review of Cornwell’s book on Newman
Anne Barbeau Gardiner’s review of John Cornwell’s Newman’s Unquiet Grave (Continuum, 2010) is now available.  Please email me for the full text.

#### Review of Gosnell's Babies
UFL member John M. Grondelski has written a review of the e-book Gosnell's Babies: The E-book, by Steve Volk. The review appears in the Fall 2013 issue of the Human Life Review. According to Amazon.com, Volk is the only journalist to have interviewed Gosnell since his conviction and imprisonment. Volk provides a more or less sympathetic look at Gosnell.  As Grondelski's review says, however, "[I]n Gosnell one sees the logic of the abortion establishment carried to its logical extension, though shorn of the mellifluous faux compassion masquerading as a verbal fig leaf tbat covers up what we want to do but not to admit."

#### Review of Kaczor's "The Ethics of Abortion"
Fine new book by UFL member Chris Kaczor -- here is my review of it:

The Ethics of Abortion: Women’s Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice. By Christopher Kaczor. New York NY: Routledge, 2011. Pp. 246. $39.95 paper.

There can be no philosophically sophisticated discussion of the morality of abortion that fails to give an adequate treatment to the definition of personhood. Kaczor wisely puts this topic at the center of his considerations. Doing so is crucial because of the claim -- often repeated today -- that not all human beings are persons. The scientific tests now available for genetic analysis make it easily possible to differentiate a human embryo from an embryo of any other kind. Thus it is fairly simple to determine biologically which beings are properly to be classed as human and which not. The debate over the morality of abortion and infanticide has come to turn instead on the question whether all human beings are persons. Thus resolving the disagreements over the appropriate definition for the term “person” has become crucial to the debate.
	Before turning to the questions raised in the subtitle of his book (e.g., women’s rights and justice), Kaczor gives a thorough-going review of the various positions that one might take on the question of the beginning of personhood. In chapters two through four he carefully reviews the range of views that populate the professional literature today and delivers detailed and cogent refutations against the arguments adduced by such figures as Peter Singer, Mary Anne Warren, David Boonin and others that personhood only starts after birth, at birth, or at some point in pregnancy other than conception. After pointing out the intractable problems that plague the first three options, he offers a positive argument for the position that personhood begins at conception by spelling out in some detail what he calls the “constitutive property argument.” In brief, this argument holds that if an individual being can be said to have a constitutive (that is, essential) property at any point in time (that is, a property intrinsically responsible for what it is), it has that property at each point throughout its existence as that individual being. Considered in this way, a constitutive property is distinct in kind from any property that comes about extrinsically or later in time or in a way that is not essential to the being, such as standing in a changeable relation to something else, or having some value assigned to it by others like economic worth as measured by what others may be willing to pay for it at a given time. Since those individuals that are recognized outside the womb as persons because of a constitutive property are the same individual human beings in the womb (or for that matter in vitro) -- a recognition made on the basis of what can be come to be known by observation and scientific data -- it follows that the fetus, the embryo, and even the zygote from which any given human individual developed was already a person and therefore should be recognized as worthy to enjoy the same fundamental rights that anyone truthfully recognized as a person enjoys.
	Needless to say, the crucial premise of this argument turns on the type of definition that one has for personhood. Under any such definition there are various implications for determining the proper identification of the essential properties of what is being defined. There is something particularly insightful about the chapters that Kaczor devotes to analyzing the arguments mounted by various philosophers for the definitions of personhood that would assign its beginning to some point during pregnancy, at birth, or even after birth. At the center of these chapters is Kaczor’s identification of a recurrent error made in these arguments when they confuse the criteria needed for distinguishing one type of being from another type of being on the basis of its constitutive properties with the criteria needed for determining membership within a type by the identification of a non-arbitrary demarcation point at which the individual in question begins to exist and after which the changes that it experiences are properly to be regarded as developments of a being whose constitutive property is already and continuously present.
	Kaczor argues that for arriving at the proper definition of the human person, one needs to focus on the constitutive or essential properties that are typical of the kind (what he calls “an endowment account of personhood”). A functional criteria (as part of what he labels “a performance account of personhood”) such as the operation of a certain mental activity or even its execution at a certain level of proficiency) can be extremely helpful when comparing individuals of various species by a review of the powers typical of mature, healthy individuals from these different species. Such considerations provide good ways to generate the sort of definitions that will reliably distinguish the species from one another. But such functional definitions do not serve as well to answer questions about the membership of individuals within a species, especially when the nascent members of that species need to experience a process of growth and development in order to reach the stage at which the function begins or some specific level of proficiency that one might want to test for. If factors internal to the individual beings that are members of a given kind direct the development of the organs and processes required for the function in question, those factors actually reveal the presence of a constitutive or essential property that is continuously present as an endowment in the individual being even prior to the manifestation of the activity of some organ or some process in actual performance.
	With his metaphysical argumentation accomplished, Kaczor devotes chapters six through nine to specifically ethical questions: Does the human embryo have rights? Is it wrong to abort a person? Is abortion permissible in hard cases? Could artificial wombs end the abortion debate? In the chapter on whether embryos possess rights one will find a meticulous examination of the main objections now in play within the literature to considering all human embryos to be human persons. These objections range from the acorn analogy (viz., even though oaks truly do develop from acorns, an acorn is not yet an oak tree), through the perplexities over such phenomena as embryo fusion, to the uncertainty argument that arises from the consideration of “probabilities.” Refusing to settle for jousting with straw-men opponents, Kaczor’s arguments on each point engage the best formulations of these problems available and provide reasonable judgments even where scientific understanding of complex phenomena is still in some flux, such as on the complex topic of twinning.
	The chapters on whether it is wrong to abort a person and on hard cases are organized in similar fashion: the presentation of the arguments frequently brought to bear in the current literature is followed by a philosophically astute reply to the most compelling form of the objection. The arguments treated here include the violinist and burglar analogies devised by Judith Jarvis Thomson as well as objections based on the bodily integrity of the pregnant woman and on the difference between intention and foresight. 
	This volume is specially valuable for its chapter on hard cases, for Kaczor there deftly treats not only the difficult situations that critics of abortion need to handle, such as fetal deformity, rape, incest, and the health and life of the mother, but also the difficult situations that defenders of abortion may not avoid considering, such as sex-selection abortions and abortions for frivolous reasons. While the cornerstone that Kaczor uses for the adjudication of the philosophical problems always remains the ontological nature of personhood (understood in terms of constitutive or essential properties), the resolution of these ethical questions invariably requires the application of common sense in the practical sphere, and readers will profit very much from studying Kaczor’s way of handling cases of conscience in this chapter. 
	Finally, the book offers a brief account of the interplay of the philosophical analysis of moral questions with certain political issues. Kaczor offers, for instance, a philosophically telling critique of the position that is sometimes popular with candidates for political office who claim to be “personally opposed” but remain publically supportive of abortion. In his final chapter Kaczor raises the fascinating possibility that if technology were ever to make artificial wombs feasible, this development may be perhaps contribute to ending the abortion debate. If such an option were available, relatively affordable, and no more intrusive a procedure than present-day abortion, he argues, it is hard to see how abortion defenders on their own grounds would have reason to prefer the extermination of nascent life to its extraction. 
	The present volume is thus a fine book-length defense of the claim that abortion is morally impermissible and a splendid guide to the philosophical complexities involved in the abortion debate. It brings together under one cover a thoughtful and readily accessible account of the positions and arguments of the major disputants, and it argues for its position in philosophical and scientific terms, without recourse to religious or theological assumptions.

Fordham University	Joseph W. Koterski, S.J.

#### Richard Doerflinger and the Slippery Slope
Here is a link to a good essay by Richard Doerflinger about assisted suicide and the slippery slope. Doerflinger's essay is a response to a recent editorial in The Economist supporting the legalization of assisted suicide. Doerflinger explains that the experience with assisted suicide in the US illustrates that opening the door to legalization typically leads down the slippery slope to broader killing.

John Keown has also emphasized the dangers of the slippery slope. Keown's book--Euthanasia, Ethics and Public Policy: An Argument Against Legalisation (2d ed. 2018)--makes the argument with great force. Here is a link to my review of Keown's book.

#### Richard Doerflinger on Cardinal John O'Connor
Here is a link to an excellent essay by Richard Doeflinger reflecting on the many pro-life contributions of Cardinal John O'Connor.

#### Richard Doerflinger on conscience rights and the Obama Administration
Here is link to an excellent piece by Richard Doerflinger entitled---A Pledge Betrayed: The Obama Administration Nullifies Conscience Rights.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2016/07/17295/?utm_source=The+Witherspoon+Institute&utm_campaign=9bfcf2f6c3-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_15ce6af37b-9bfcf2f6c3-84151629

#### Richard Doerflinger on the Charlie Gard case
Here is a link to Richard Doerflinger's analysis.

#### Richard Doerflinger on the DC assisted suicide bill
Here is a link to a very good article by Richard Doerflinger some of the serious problems with the DC bill that would allow assisted suicide in our Nation's capital.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2016/11/18224/?utm_source=The+Witherspoon+Institute&utm_campaign=8241dc4ffd-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_15ce6af37b-8241dc4ffd-84151629

 

#### Richard Doerflinger on the Equality Act and Abortion
Here is a link to a good article by Richard Doerflinger on the Equality Act and abortion. Here is his conclusion:

The “abortion as health care” campaign advanced by the Equality Act effectively defines the unborn child out of existence. It treats the child as merely a “physical condition” of the mother that health professionals are called on to address through corrective treatment. In a sense the Act also defines Americans who object to such taking of innocent human life out of existence as well, treating them as bigots who must be forced to comply with anti-discrimination policies accepted by all fair-minded citizens. The Act does not promote equality, as it further demeans vulnerable human beings who already have few rights -- and denies the right of pro-life Americans, who make up about half the U.S. population, to live by their fundamental convictions. In no way should its enactment be the goal of a “presidency for all Americans.”

#### Richard Doerflinger to receive pro-life award at Notre Dame
Here is a link to an announcement that Richard Doerflinger will receive the first Evangelium Vitae Medal  at Notre Dame.http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/17049/ The Medal is awarded by the Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life. As the announcement states: "Richard Doerflinger’s unwavering commitment and heroic witness to life on Capitol Hill and beyond make him the perfect first recipient.”

"The Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life is an expendable fund at the University of Notre Dame dedicated to educating Notre Dame students regarding the dignity of human life, specifically at its beginning stages, and to encouraging relevant understanding, support and involvement among the entire Notre Dame community on beginning of life issues. The fund is administered by a five-member committee whose members are David Solomon, Director of the Center for Ethics and Culture;  Elizabeth Kirk, associate director of the Center for Ethics and Culture; Rev. Wilson Miscamble, C.S.C., professor of history; O. Carter Snead, associate professor of law; and Daniel Philpott, associate professor of political science and peace studies."

 Richard M.

#### Richard Doerflinger's Analysis of Assisted Suicide in Oregon
Here is a research paper by Richard Doerflinger. The report is entitled "Oregon's Assisted Suicides: The Up-to-Date Reality in 2017." In his analysis, Doerflinger comments on the official reports issued by the state of Oregon. Here is his conclusion:

"This is the updated reality of physician-assisted suicide in the state whose law is seen as a model for the nation. Chronically ill seniors, potentially victims of untreated depression and the impression that they have become a “burden” on others, are nudged to a premature death that may be more gruesome than they’ve been led to believe, with no one usually present at the time of death to check whether they are competent, badgered by others, or overtly coerced toward that death. This is what has become known as “death with dignity” in Oregon, and advocates are working to spread it to far more states."

#### Richard Doerflinger's essay on John Noonan
Here is a link to a very good essay by Richard Doerflinger on Judge John Noonan; the essay is entitled "A Life Well Spent: Learning from John Noonan." .

#### Richard Stith on "Reforming the Pro-Choice Market"
Here is a link to Richard Stith's post on the First Things blog on "Reforming the Pro-Choice Market." http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2010/11/reforming-the-pro-choice-market Richard argues against repealing Obamacare but argues that the health care law ought to be amended to exclude abortion.

Richard M.

#### Richard Stith on the Dobbs case
Here is a link to a good essay in Public Discourse by Richard Stith on the Dobbs case. Stith argues that in overruling Roe the Court ought not to rely on the personhood argument.

Rather, he argues, "the Court could say that it need not reach and decide the question whether the unborn child actually is a fellow human being in order to uphold Mississippi’s law in the Dobbs case before it. It need only affirm that such a judgment by a state like Mississippi is quite reasonable. Given that reasonable judgment, the state in question has a compelling interest in protecting that child by law (and also in recognizing the unborn child’s personhood in its state constitution)."

The benefit of this approach, Stith contends, is that it would predictable harms from the broader ruling.

Stith states: "An instant victory—one that would end all abortion nationwide—could provoke backlash so severe that the Court’s legitimacy and power could face irreparable damage. The strategy I propose, on the other hand, would avoid a constitutional crisis; it would allow the Court to speak powerfully and compassionately about the nature and dignity of the child; and it would allow it to declare the reasonableness of protecting both the child and the child’s mother from the violence of abortion. Then, many years from now, after a successful outcome to the political debate that must still come, the Court could finally recognize that child to be fully one of us: a fellow human being with a constitutional right to life. "

#### Richard Stith on the March for Life, Roe v. Wade, and Dobbs
Here is a link to a good essay by Richard Stith. Stith states:

"I’m grateful that the majority of the US Supreme Court in its 2022 Dobbs case overturned the Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision (and the 1992 Casey decision) that had declared the existence of a constitutional right to elective abortion.

Some of my friends are disappointed, however, that the Supreme Court left the abortion question up to state and federal law, rather than recognizing the unborn child as a fellow human being with his or her own constitutional right to life. This disappointment is understandable.

But it’s important that we also take note of some strikingly pro-life aspects of the Dobbs majority’s opinion, and even of the opinion of the pro-choice dissent."

As we approach the 50th anniversary of Roe, here is a link to my article entitled "Re-Reading Roe v. Wade." Here is the conclusion of that article:

"In sum, the overwhelming sense that comes through a rereading of Roe is that Justice Blackmun authored an incredibly
weak opinion. I think that portends the decision’s ultimate
reversal. The Supreme Court and the American system do have
the capacity for self-correction and the deep flaws in the key case
establishing a nearly unlimited right to an abortion suggest that
the ultimate reversal of Roe v. Wade is likely."

#### Richard Wilkins passes away at 59
The pro-life and pro-family causes suffered a great loss earlier this week with the untimely passing of Richard Wilkins. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865567647/BYU-law-professor-well-known-Utah-stage-actor-Richard-Wilkins-passes-away-at-59.html He will be sorely missed.

Professor Wilkins was a featured speaker at UFL's 2005 conference. Here is a link to his paper from that conference. http://www.uffl.org/vol15/wilkins05.pdf

Richard M.

#### Rick Garnett on Dobbs and the Future of Roe v. Wade
Here is a good essay by Rick Garnett entitled "Rehnquist's Reservations and the Future of Roe." Garnett argues that that the Court ought to follow the approach taken by Justice Rehnquist in his dissent and Roe and by Chief Justice Rehnquist in his dissent in Casey.

Here is Garnett's conclusion:

"the Court in Dobbs should clearly and candidly overrule Roe. Doing so would be entirely consistent with both the judicial role and the stare decisis principle, correctly understood. Roe was wrongly decided, its reasoning was unconvincing, its attempted re-working in Casey was unsuccessful, its asserted factual premises were and are flimsy, it has distorted both constitutional doctrine and American political life, its persistence has undermined rather than shored up the Court’s institutional legitimacy and place in our constitutional structure, and its overdue repudiation would not unsettle legitimate expectations or reliance interests.

Rehnquist insisted, correctly, that an “intensely divisive” ruling or case gains no special protections against critical examination. Quite the contrary: “The Judicial Branch derives its legitimacy, not from following public opinion, but from deciding by its best lights whether legislative enactments of the popular branches of Government comport with the Constitution.” That the country is “divided,” nearly 50 years after Roe, on the question of the morality of abortion and about its regulation confirms that the decision was an overreach and should be overruled. The Dobbs case provides an excellent opportunity, and Chief Justice Rehnquist provided a clear model, for doing so."

#### right to conscience victory in Plan B case
Here is a link to the federal district court opinion in the Storman case. http://www.becketfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Stormans-Opinion-from-Judge-revised.pdf

This case, which has been in litigation for nearly 5 years, involves a challenge to a Washington Board of Pharmacy regulation that requires pharmacies to dispense "emergency contraceptives" despite a religious objection to dispensing these drugs. In yesterday's ruling, the court found that the regulations were a religious gerrymander that violated the free exercise rights of the plaintiffs.

Here is a link to a press release from the Becket Fund, which represented the plaintiffs. http://www.becketfund.org/court-strikes-down-law-requiring-pharmacies-to-dispense-the-morning-after-pill/

Richard M.

 

#### Right to Work Legislation
The five Catholic bishops of Indiana recently made an important contribution to the passionate and ongoing debate about the “right-to-work” legislation being introduced in the Indiana legislature. That legislation would eliminate requirements that non-union employees pay fees to a union recognized in their workplace.

As a long-time union supporter, I have opposed the proposed law, fearing that unions would become weaker as employees became tempted by economic hardship, especially in these tough times, into disaffiliating in order not to pay their fair share of bargaining costs.

The Catholic bishops have brought up a new issue: employee conscience. They point out that some unions “use their resources to support politicians or political parties that clearly devalue the sanctity of human life or the institution of marriage.” President Obama and the national Democratic Party come readily to mind (even though there are a quite few “Democrats for Life,” like myself, at the grassroots level of the Party). Without right-to-work legislation, some employees are forced to violate their consciences, since the required fees indirectly enable mothers and fathers to turn tragically against their own children, dismembering them in the womb.

My own position has thus changed. If the national Democratic Party became neutral on abortion, or if Indiana unions ceased to support that party, I would oppose right-to-work laws. Until one of those things happens, I reluctantly support the proposed legislation.

#### Risk of Premature Birth Increased by Abortion
The London Times has reported on a large Scottish study finding that induced abortion increases the risk of premature birth in subsequent pregnancies by as much as 34%.  The study appears at Best Practice and Research: Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Volume 24, Issue 5, October 2010, Pages 667-682, and is available through the Science Direct database if your library subscribes.  All of Volume 24, Issue 5 of the journal addresses induced abortion and is worth reading if your work includes the medical aspects of abortion.  I have copied the title and article abstract below.

Obstetric performance following an induced abortion

Lowit, A.a , Bhattacharya, S.a , Bhattacharya, S.b 

Abstract 

Abortion has been legalised in most of the Western world for the past four decades. In areas where abortion practices are legal and easy to access, the risk of short-term complications is very low. As most women requesting induced abortion (IA) are young, potential adverse effects on subsequent reproductive function are important to them. This review investigates obstetric performance following IA and highlights methodological problems associated with research in this area. Some data suggest that IA may be linked with an increased risk of low birth weight, miscarriage and placenta previa but could be protective for pre-eclampsia. Current evidence also suggests an association between IA and pre-term birth. Large prospective cohort studies, which permit meaningful subgroup analyses, are needed to provide definitive answers on outcomes following alternative methods of IA and the impact of gestational age at abortion on future obstetric outcomes. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

Bhattacharya, S.; Division of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, Cornhill Road, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZL, United Kingdom; 
© Copyright 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved. © MEDLINE® is the source for the MeSH terms of this document.
 
Best Practice and Research: Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology 
Volume 24, Issue 5, October 2010, Pages 667-682

#### Robert George on Human Embryos
Here is an excellent essay by Robert George entitled "Are Human Embryos Human Beings? Here is the conclusion:

"The pro-life view depends on an undisputed scientific fact plus a moral principle that explains and vindicates the worth of infants and the cognitively impaired, and affirms the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every member of the hurnan family. The defense of elective abortion depends on a moral view that must deny these points, a biological view that contradicts science, or both."

#### Robert George Predicts "Roe Will Go"
Here is a link to a good essay in First Things by Robert George. Here is George's prediction:

"Next year, the Supreme Court will hold that there is no constitutional right to elective abortions. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case pending before the court, it will return the issue to the states for the first time in forty-nine years. It will do so explicitly, calling out by name, and reversing in full, the two major cases that confected and then entrenched a constitutional right to elective abortion: Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). And the vote will be six to three."

#### Robert George reflects on asking presidential candidates about Roe
Over at Public Discourse, in his new post, Reflections of a Questioner (http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/10/4055), Robert George evaluates the answers of Ron Paul and Mitt Romney to George's question about what legislation each presidental candidate would propose to overturn Roe v. Wade.  Professor George notes that this question raises a fundamental constitutional issue regarding the role of the Courts in the American Constitutional order. He notes that both Romney and Paul identify abortion as an issue best dealt with by the states, and not the federal government.  George seems to agree, but ends his essay with the most difficult question of all:  What should Congress do, pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment, to protect the unborn in the event that some states decline to fulfill their responsibility to do so?  Neither candidate answered that question.

#### Roe 40th Symposium
The Witherspoon Institute's Public Discourse is beginning a daily symposium commemorating the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  Contributors include:

Ryan T. Anderson, "On the Fortieth Anniversary of Roe v. Wade: A Public Discourse Symposium"
Elise Italiano, “Forty Years Later: It’s Time for a New Feminism”
Michael New, “Abortion Promises Unfulfilled”
Daniel K. Williams, “The Real Reason to Criticize Roe”
Gerard V. Bradley, “The Paradox of Persons Forty Years After Roe”
Michael Stokes Paulsen, “The Right to Life Forty Years from Now”

#### Roe and Casey Overruled!!!
In a tremendous victory for the pro-life movement, the Court overruled Roe and Casey. Here is a link to the Dobbs opinion.  Here is a link to a LifeNews story.

#### Roe at 40
Frank Beckwith has written a two-part essay on Roe at 40.  The first part is available on The Catholic Thing. In it he discusses the failure of the court to address the moral status of the unborn.

I hope to aggregate a collection of such reflections for the next issue of the ProVita newsletter. If you find a good essay or article, let me know. My contact information can be found at the end of the most recent ProVita.

#### Roe at 40 conference
On November 7-8, 2013, Washington & Lee University School of Law hosted a conference marking the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The conference, Roe at 40: The Controversy Continues, http://law.wlu.edu/lawcenter/page.asp?pageid=1620,  was largely organized by Sam Calhoun (a member of the UFL Board). The conference was co-sponsored by University Faculty for Life, ACLU of Virginia, Virginia NOW, the Frances Lewis Law Center, the Washington and Lee Law Review, and the Provost's Office of Washington and Lee University.

The conference was unusual in that a variety of perspectives on abortion were included. The speakers were (in order of appearance): Clarke Forsythe, David Garrow, Sam Calhoun, Mary Zeigler, Richard Myers, Priscilla Smith, Tom Molony, Caroline Mala Corbin, Teresa Collett, Kathy Greenier, Randy Beck, Caitlin Borgman, Michael Paulsen, Maya Manian, Lynne Marie Kohm, Robin Wilson/Ryan Hrobak, and James Mahon. The papers from the conference will be published by the Washington and Lee Law Review.

The conference was quite interesting. I know all of the attendees greatly appreciated the hospitality of Sam Calhoun and everyone at Washington and Lee. The inclusion of diverse perspectives led to some contentious exchanges. I thought one of the fascinating aspects of the conference was the efforts of the supporters of abortion rights to deal with the issue of sex-selection abortion. One response, which revealed how extreme the law is in this country, was that the state can't ever second guess a woman's reason to have an abortion at any time during pregnancy. Another response indicated that these abortions didn't really constitute sex discrimination against girls because until birth these were only potential girls.

This issue--sex-selection abortion--reveals (as do abortions for reason of disability) that the most important principle for supporters of abortion rights is not equality. The governing principle is the autonomous power to make life and death decisons about another human life.

Richard M.

 

#### Roe at 40: The Controversy Continues
The Washington & Lee Law Review just published the papers from the "Roe at 40" conference held at W & L on November 7, 2013. Much of the funding for this conference came from University Faculty for Life (UFL). The conference was largely made possible through the efforts of Sam Calhoun (who is a member of the W & L faculty and a member of the UFL Board).  The papers are available here, see http://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/ .

The conference included speakers from varying perspectives. The speakers included Clarke Forsythe, Sam Calhoun, Richard Myers, Tom Molony, Teresa Collett, Randy Beck, and Lynn Marie Kohm.

Richard M.

#### Roe v. Wade is not settled law
Here is a very good piece by Clarke Forsythe (from Americans United for Life) explaining why Roe v. Wade is not settled law, and why there are good reasons to believe that Roe will eventually be  overruled.

#### Roe v. Wade, the Controversy Continues
The Francis Lewis Law Center of the Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, VA, is sponsoring a symposium called Roe at 40, The Controversy Continues, Nov. 7-8, 2013.  Among the keynote speakers will be Caitlin Borgmann is a professor of law at CUNY School of Law, and Michael Paulsen is a professor of law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Confirmed panelists include several UFL members, including:

	Sam Calhoun (Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University)
	Teresa Collett (Professor of Law, University of St. Thomas)
	Lynne Marie Kohm (John Brown McCarty Professor of Family Law, Regent University)

The event is free and open to the public. Attorneys who want to receive CLE (Continuing Legal Education) credit will have to sign in to memorialize their attendance. For more information, go here.

#### Roe's life-or-health exception
A recently published article by Professor Stephen Gilles does an excellent job of revealing the Supreme Court's failure to articulate a clear meaning for Roe v. Wade's life-or-health exception: Roe's Life-Or-Health Exception: Self-Defense or Relative-Safety?, 85 Notre Dame Law Review 525 (Feb. 2010).  As many of you know, Roe allows states to prohibit abortions of viable fetuses except those necessary "for the preservation of the life or health of the mother."  But as Gilles exhaustively reveals, neither Roe nor its progeny explains the meaning of this exception.  It could be based on the principle of either self-defense ("continued pregnancy would put the mother in grave danger of death or serious injury") or relative safety ("continued pregnancy would pose greater risks to her life or health than an abortion").  Which meaning applies has significant practical impact in two areas: ( 1) the circumstances under which post-viability abortions are legally available; and (2) the abortion methods permissible for such abortions.
 
Professor Gilles traces the Court's tortuous path on this issue through a number of Supreme Court decisions.  The Court's vacillations and obfuscations are disturbing.  Gilles convincingly defends his conclusion that the Court has utterly failed in its responsibility plainly to articulate the governing legal standard.   
 
As valuable as the article is as an account of the Court's failings, it also more broadly stimulated my thinking about the life-or-health exception.  Assume that ardent pro-lifers get their wish—the Court firmly adopts the more abortion-restricting self-defense rationale.  How much protection to fetal life is actually provided?  There are reasons for considerable skepticism.  For one thing, experience prior to Roe indicates that the concept of "threat to the woman's life" was broadly interpreted.  Moreover, the exception is essentially self-executing by the woman and her abortionist, without meaningful oversight by others.  In the normal criminal law scenario, this isn't the case.  The self-defense concept is initially self-executing, in that a person kills, say, an attacker, without seeking prior approval from some tribunal.  But eventually someone evaluates whether the circumstances properly triggered t he self-defense justification.  Juries do so if the matter makes it that far.  For cases that never make it to trial, some prosecutor presumably determined that the facts warranted killing in self-defense.  In the abortion setting, there normally would be no outside evaluator.  An abortionist can simply perform the abortion under the auspices of the life-or-health exception.  Who is to say differently?  For example, I'm not aware that any states have reporting requirements that might potentially subject such a decision to scrutiny.  In addition, the protracted litigation in Kansas a few years ago shows what's in store for a state official who takes the unusual step of using the judicial process to obtain needed information.  Thus, one can argue that even a restrictive self-defense interpretation of the life-or-health exception provides no meaningful limitation on late abortions.
 
The off-shoot of these reflections is a sobering thought: as important as the law is, it is foolish to rely upon it as the principal defense of preborn lives.  We kid ourselves if we think that working for a pro-life legal regime is all that's required of us as pro-lifers.

#### Russian to require warnings of abortion risk
Rueters is reporting that the Russian government is considering requiring ads for abortion to contain explicit warnings regarding potential adverse effects on women's health, including their fertility.  The story is here.

#### Ryan Anderson on assisted suicide
Here is a link to an excellent paper on assisted suicide by Ryan Anderson.  The title explains his basic message: “Always Care, Never Kill: How Physician-Assisted Suicide Endangers the Weak, Corrupts Medicine, Compromises the Family, and Violates Human Dignity and Equality.”

 

 

#### Sam Calhoun's paper on Kermit Gosnell
Here is the abstract of Sam Calhoun's paper on Philadelphia abortion provider Kermit Gosnell, and a link to the abstract and paper. Sam presented a version of this  paper at the University of Faculty for Life conference at Notre Dame in June 2011.

"This article focuses on three of the atrocities committed by Philadelphia abortion provider Kermit Gosnell: his shameful, destructive treatment of women; his brutal killing of born-alive infants; and his performance of illegal post-viability abortions. Pro-choicers and pro-lifers alike should unite in condemning, stopping, and preventing these abuses. Women seeking abortions need the protection of medically appropriate health and safety regulations; a civilized society should not tolerate the killing of babies, viable or not, once they are born; and viable fetuses deserve meaningful legal protection. The wider abortion controversy is sure to continue, but the combatants should join forces to achieve these three significant objectives."

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1932384

Richard M.

#### Sam Calhoun's recent article on Carhart II
At the 2008 UFL conference at Marquette, Sam Calhoun presented a critique of the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Carhart. An expanded version of that paper has just recently been published in the Mississippi Law Journal. The article is entitled ""Partial-Birth Abortion' is Not Abortion: Carhart II's Fundamental Misapplication of Roe" and it is available at 79 Miss. L. J. 775-829 (2010).

The title gives a good idea of the basic argument. Sam contends that a "partial-birth abortion" is not in reality an abortion and that accordingly Roe v. Wade does not apply. Because the right to abortion is not implicated, bans on "partial-birth abortions" ought to be subject to and upheld under the rational basis test.

Sam's article is well worth a careful reading.

Richard M.

#### San Jose Articles presented at UN briefing
The San Jose Articles were presented at a UN briefing today. The Articles, which challenge the widespread claims that international law supports a right to abortion, were discussed by Robert George and Grover Joseph Rees. See www.sanjosearticles.org.

Richard M.

#### San Jose Articles used to block right to abortion in Uruguay
Here is an encouraging article from C-Fam about a positive development in Uruguay. http://www.c-fam.org/fridayfax/volume-14/san-jose-articles-used-to-block-right-to-abortion-in-uruguay.html

There has been a steady push from the abortion rights movement to claim that there is a right to abortion protected by international law. The San Jose Articles (see this post, http://uffl.org/blog/2011/10/06/san-jose-articles-presented-at-un-briefing/) refute that claim and the Articles have now been relied upon to resist that effort in Uruguay.

Richard M.

#### Saunders and Burke on the fate of the Texas abortion law
Here is a link to a good article by Bill Saunders and Denise Burke describing recent developments in cases challenging aspects of the Texas abortion law. The Supreme Court recently prevented the implementation of two parts of the Texas law--the requirement that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at local hospitals and the requirement that abortion clinics comply with ambulatory surgical center standards. As Saunders and Burke explain, it seems likely that the US Supreme Court will take up the issues in the near future.

Here is the conclusion of their article: "Ultimately, Supreme Court review of Texas House Bill 2 would provide a welcomed opportunity to demonstrate that such maternal health laws are both necessary and medically justified, that state must be given significant latitude to regulate abortion, and that abortion is not “safe” for either women or their unborn children."

http://www.lifenews.com/2014/10/20/will-the-supreme-court-uphold-texas-pro-life-law-that-saved-babies-from-abortion/

Richard Myers

#### Scholarly Achievement Award (undergrad and grad)
You are undoubtedly beginning to prepare for the second semester.  As part of your planning, you might consider promoting the UFL Scholarly Achievement Award
in Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research, which is coordinated by Dr. Jeff Koloze.  Here are the details:

University Faculty for Life Scholarly Achievement Award in Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research

$600 total prizes

Possible presentation of work at annual conference

Opportunity for publication

University Faculty for Life will now accept submissions from college or university students for its Scholarly Achievement Award. The contest is open to undergraduate and graduate students at any level. Students may submit work in three categories: Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research. Work submitted in any category must demonstrate the application of a life-affirming perspective on abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, or related issues.

The student scholars who win in any category may be offered an opportunity to read their work before the annual conference of University Faculty for Life to be held 31 May-1 June 2013 at the University of San Francisco. They may have their work published on UFL’s website. Finally, winners in each category will receive $200.
University Faculty for Life is an organization of scholars dedicated to the intellectual and scholarly inquiry of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and related issues. Since an increasing majority of college and university students are pro-life, we would like to help these students by encouraging them to strive for scholarly excellence as they examine these issues and by assisting them with building a publications portfolio.

Entries must be emailed or postmarked on or before 11:59 PM EST on Saturday, 11 May 2013

Rules

	Students must be enrolled in a college or university at time of submission of work; a copy of an identification card with current college or university sticker will suffice.
	 The student shall affirm in a cover letter that the work submitted is the student’s original work. Please enclose address and contact information in this letter.
	Essay submissions must be a minimum of six but no more than ten pages; poetry submissions can be of any length. Both essay and poetry submissions must be double-spaced.
	Students retain the right of publication.
	A panel of judges will evaluate submissions based on the quality of research and the demonstration of strong communication and critical thinking skills. Correct grammar and punctuation are required. Research must follow either the APA Manual or the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, latest editions. The judges reserve the right to give a partial or no award if the quality of the submissions merits such action. The decision of the judges is final.
	Students should submit their work electronically in Word format to <a href="mailto: DrJeffKoloze@att.net">DrJeffKoloze@att.net</a>. The cover letter and a hard copy of the paper may be mailed to UFL Scholarly Achievement Award, 10019 Granger Road, Garfield Heights, Ohio 44125-3101.

 

#### Scholarly Achievement Award in Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research
Attention, colleagues! The "University Faculty for Life Scholarly Achievement Award in Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research" is now seeking submissions to be evaluated for next year's award. Complete guidelines are available on the UFL website (clik on the "Student Awards" link). An abbreviated format of the award flyer is available.UFL Scholarly Achievement Award flyer

#### Scholarship and the transformation of the heart
In an election year there is an awful lot of emphasis on the political component of the promotion of the culture of life. The first responsibility of the state is to protect innocent himan life. We long for and strive for the day when the law of the land in American and around the world does so.

On the other hand, we know that a change in the law does not instantly make a culture a culture of life (although the law does help form culture--it has an educative effect and purpose). In order to change culture we need to change hearts.

Changing minds is an important part of changing hearts. This is the specific area where scholarship can assist. We help develop cogent rational argumentation based on solid philosophy (and, in some cases, theology), as well as accurate data and research in the medical, legal, psychological, and social science fields. Even simply helping students to think well in an "unrelated" field indirectly helps.

There is another component to the transformation of hearts, the formation of  emotions (affect),  that is not so obviously the direct task of the scholar. It may, however, be the most important way to change hearts and to change culture. Many people simply do not have as strong an emotional reaction to the abortion of a twelve-week foetus or the (lets say voluntary for the sake of argument) euthanizing of a terminally ill cancer patients as they do, for instance, of the trauma of undocumented immigration or waterboarding. They do not feel the humanity of the unborn from the inside, so to speak.

The role of the academy, the scholar, is to form the intellectual, not the law or the emotions. Yet, the top-notch work of scholars and teachers can contribute to better jurisprudence. It can also lead to the emotional conversion of students.

So, my question is, what is the  way to stay true to the proper task of the scholar, and at the same time foster an emotional conversion in their students and readers. Is it ever proper to intentionally "play to the emotions," so to speak, or should we just let the truth speak for itself?

#### Scholarship on disabilities
Ann Millett-Gallant’s “The Disabled Body in Contemporary Art” offers trenchant commentary about art works depicting the “disabled,” the outmoded and now politically-incorrect word to denote persons who have physical challenges.  Many of her statements can be useful for a life-affirming perspective towards those with disabilities whose right to life is being contested by infanticide and euthanasia activists.  See: Millett-Gallant, Ann. The Disabled Body in Contemporary Art. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.  See also http://us.macmillan.com/thedisabledbodyincontemporaryart.

#### Scholarship on election data needed
Political Science colleagues or others who research election data are needed to analyze yesterday’s midterm elections in the United States. I am particularly interested in: 1. the strength of the pro-life vote; 2. the shift in the political affiliation of Hispanic/Latino voters to the Republican Party; and 3. the effect of voter surveys conducted by national political action committees or other pro-life groups. The last question is especially important for the 2012 elections. If discussing sensitive data, please reply privately to my email or cell.

Colleagues who investigate these topics may want to consider presenting their research at next year's UFL conference.

#### SCOTUS rules on Hobby Lobby case
I usually leave it to the attorneys to post on legal decisions, but this one seems big, so I want to get it out there.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialities are exempt from the HHS contraceptive mandate because the terms of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act cover for-profit corporations.  More details on LifeSiteNews and the BBC.

#### Scotusblog symposium on Whole Woman's Health v. Cole.
Below is a link to a very helpful scotusblog symposium on Whole Woman's Health v. Cole, the abortion case that will be argued before the US Supreme Court in early March of 2016. This case involves the constitutionality of a Texas abortion law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at local hospitals and requiring abortion clinics to meet ambulatory surgical center standards. The contributions by Teresa Collett and Kevin Walsh are particularly worth reading.

http://www.scotusblog.com/category/special-features/whole-womans-health-v-cole/

#### Secular biomedical ethics journals
I discovered this list of secular biomedical ethics journals on the NIH web page. It includes a link to this list of journals, books, and other resources on the Canadian Centre for Applied Ethics web page. If you are interested in substantial dialogue with a variety of perspectives on life issues, this would be a good place to look for peer reviewed literature.

#### selective reduction
Here is a link to a recent story in the Canadian press about the increase in selective reductions. http://www.nationalpost.com/news/When+twins+many/3960709/story.html The article focuses on an Ontario couple. The wife was pregnant with twins but she found a doctor who was willing to "reduce" the pregnancy "from twins to a singleton." As the article described this trend: "The Ontario couple is part of what some experts say is a growing demand for reducing twins to one, fuelled more by socio-economic imperatives than medical need, and raising vexing new ethical questions." The ethical issue doesn't seem particularly vexing, but I suppose this development is not unexpected when, as the article notes, an abortion can be obtained in North America for any reason. Perhaps the presence of some second thoughts about selective reductions is a good sign.  

Richard M.

#### Self-induced abortions and RU-486
The woman challenging the Idaho abortion laws says she brought her lawsuit after a district attorney tried to prosecute her for a self-induce abortion.  The charges were dismissed, but form the basis for her claim that she fears injury from the enforcement of the Idaho laws. I have blogged previously about her claims related to the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Act here and here, but did not discuss her claim that a law prohibiting self-induced abortion is unconstitutional.  This second claim raises several interesting policy and legal issues.

From a policy perspective, it is important to know how often women try to self-induce an abortion. Care2 Blog had an interesting posting on this topic several months ago, Could Self-Induced Abortions be on the Rise? The post identifies two journal articles addressing the topic, How Commonly Do US Patients Report Attempts to Self Induce? and Self-Induction Among Women in the United States.  The first article appears in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and reports that more than 2 percent of the 9,493 abortion patients surveyed had tried to induce abortions on their own.  In the second study, published in the British journal, Reproductive Health Matters, 1,425 women responded to surveys in clinic waiting rooms, with 4.6 percent saying they had tried to induce their own abortions.

Both articles and the blog post suggest that self-abortion may be on the rise, due in part to the development of RU-486.  While the potential for serious complications from RU-486 is not open to doubt (more on the effects here), abortion-rights activitists and prolife adovocates debate the frequency of complications and the need for strict regulation.

With increasing availability of the drug on the internet, there are growning concerns that a growing number of women, like the Plaintiff in the Idaho case, will simply order and take RU-486 with no medical supervision.  In addition to the very real concerns for the health of these women, if the drug does not result in an abortion, the effects of the drug on the unborn child can be devasting.

Taking both the serious (but relatively rare) complications to women and the devasting harms suffered by children who survive the use of the drug while in utero, how should lawmakers and government lawyers respond to challenges to state statutes prohibiting self-abortions?  If considering only the effect on women and not their children, are there sufficient safety concerns arising from the side-effects that sustain the state's power to prohibit the activity? Do these laws more closely resemble state and federal laws on controlled substances or state prohibitions on suicide?  I tend to think that, in light of the availability of medically supervised abortions, that the state  has sufficient interest in the health and safety of women to sustain the prohibitions, but it is not hard to image some federal or state judge disagreeing.

#### Sen. Hawley on Judicial Nominees and Roe v. Wade
Here is a link to an essay in Public Discourse by Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri.  The essay is entitled "Judicial Nominees Must Explicitly Acknowledge That Roe was Wrongly Decided."

Here is his penultimate paragraph: "Now, some will say that this is yesterday’s battle—that we should just accept Roe and move on, that today’s Supreme Court is the best we could possibly hope for. To which I say: Every single life is worth fighting for, and I will not accept failure. I will not accept defeat. I take this stand because I believe it is what justice and fidelity to the law require of me in our time, of me and of those who would exercise the awesome power of judicial review entrusted to justices in Article Three of our Constitution."

#### Senate Confirms Amy Coney Barrett
By a vote of 52-48, the US Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Barrett replaces Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died on September 18, 2020.

Barrett adheres to the same judicial philosophy as Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom Barrett clerked in the late 1990s. As a result, most observers believe she will be far more willing to allow states to regulate and perhaps even prohibit abortion. Scalia rejected the Court's decision in Roe v. Wade to create a constitutional right to abortion. Barrett was a member of the Notre Dame chapter of University Faculty for Life before she became a federal court of appeals judge in 2017.

In addition, it seems doubtful that Barrett will be receptive to arguments to create a constitutional right to assisted suicide. The Court rejected constitutional challenges to laws banning assisted suicide in 1997 in Washington v. Glucksberg, but some observers have speculated that the Court might willing to revisit Glucksberg. That now seems far less likely.

#### Senate Fails to Pass Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
On January 29, 2018, the Senate, by a vote of  51-46, failed to invoke cloture and thus prevented a vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would have banned abortions after 20 weeks. Here and here are news items about the Senate's action.

#### Senate hearing on CEDAW
Here is a link to Terry McKeegan's report on a recent Senate hearing on CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women). http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1742/pub_detail.asp CEDAW was signed by President Carter but has not been ratified. Pro-life groups have long raised concerns that CEDAW is being used to promote abortion rights. Here is a link to written testimony submitted by C-FAM's Susan Yoshihara. http://www.c-fam.org/docLib/20101124_CEDAW_testimony_CFAM.pdf

Richard M.

#### Senator Hawley on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
Here are the remarks of Senator Josh Hawley in support of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Here is a paragraph from near the end of his remarks:

"So we must press forward in this generation for our revolutionary faith. Let us not go back to the darkness and cruelty of the past. Let us not go back to the arbitrary rule of the powerful and the few. Let us affirm again our founding belief in the equal worth and equal dignity of all. As we do, we will do our part for liberty and justice in our day."

#### Senator Vitter introduces ban on sex-selection abortions
After the House failed to pass the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act, here is a story from LifeNews.com about a new effort to ban sex-selection abortions. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/13/u-s-senator-introduces-sex-selection-abortion-ban/

Richard M.

#### Senior Research Fellowship in History, Law, or Philosophy at All Souls College
This just in from the Philosophy Research Network:

All Souls College
Senior Research Fellowships in History, Law, and Philosophy

HUM does not endorse or warrant any professional or job opening announcement, and assumes no liability regarding these announcements.

When answering queries, please say you saw it on HUM.

All Souls College
Senior Research Fellowships in History, Law, and Philosophy

All Souls College invites applications for up to two Senior Research Fellowships tenable from 1 October 2016 (or date to be agreed): in History (from c. AD 500), Law and Philosophy.

DESCRIPTION/QUALIFICATIONS: A Senior Research Fellowship is of comparable academic standing to a statutory Professorship in the University of Oxford. Applicants are expected to have a correspondingly distinguished record of achievement in research and those elected may apply within the University for the title of Professor.

SALARY: British Pound 91,621 to 100,071 (depending on how much University lecturing the Fellow undertakes and inclusive of the British Pound 6,177 Housing Allowance payable to eligible Fellows) and generous other benefits.

APPLICATIONS/FURTHER INFORMATION: For further particulars and to complete the online application, see the College's website: http://www.all-souls.ox.ac.uk/senior-research-fellowships

CLOSING DATES: 12 noon, Friday, 18 September 2015 - applications; Friday, 25 September - references.
Meetings with Fellows: Friday and Saturday, 12/13 February 2016 and Friday and Saturday, 19/20 February 2016.

All Souls College is an equal opportunities employer and particularly encourages applications from women and those with a legally protected characteristic.

#### Series of articles on the "viability rule"
Just discovered a series of articles exploring the Supreme Court's position allowing post-viability abortion bans by Randy Beck.  You can find Randy Beck's articles at The Essential Holding of Casey: Rethinking Viability, Where's the Syllogism?: Gonzales, Casey and the Viability Rule, and Self-Conscious Dicta: The Origins of Roe v. Wade's Trimester Framework.  These articles are helpful in considering the constitutionality of the recently enacted Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

#### Seventh Circuit Affirms Ruling Invalidating Indiana Abortion Law
Here is a link to an April 19, 2018 opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The court affirmed a decision from a federal district court judge invalidating provisions of Indiana's abortion law. The provisions banned abortion when the person performing the abortion knows the woman is seeking an abortion due to disability, sex, or race, and also required that the remains of aborted babies be disposed of in a dignified manner.

Judge Manion wrote an opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part. Judge Manion's opinion is a must read. Here is a portion of his opinion--

"Indiana made a noble attempt to protect the most vulnerable members of an already vulnerable group. That it must fail is not due to lack of effort by the legislators who drafted it or the Solicitor General who ably argued before us. The Supreme Court's abortion jurisprudence proved an insurmountable obstacle despite their best efforts. More than anything, this case illustrates the extent to which abortion has become the most favored right in American law. Without a significant recalibration, the States sadly cannot protect even unborn children targeted because of their race, sex, or diagnosis of Down syndrome. But this court is powerless to change that state of affairs. Only the Supreme Court or a constitutional amendment can do that."

#### Sex Equality and State Interests in Abortion Regulation
Priscilla Smith, former Director of the Domestic Legal Program of the Center for Reproductive Rights from 2003-2007 and a litigating attorney with the Center for 13 years overall, has a new article on attacking abortion regulation through claims of sex discrimination. The article, Give Justice Ginsburg What She Wants: Using Sex Equality Arguments to Demand Examination of the Legitimacy of State Interests in Abortion Regulation, can be accessed through SSRN here.

#### sex-selection abortion
Here is a good essay by Daniel Kuebler explaining why the US ought to ban sex-selection abortion. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2014/01/11828/

Richard M.

#### Sex-selective abortions American style
The San Francisco Chronicle has an op-ed about sex-selective abortion arguing that such abortions are a violation of human rights. (The author does not attempt explain what distinguishes sex-selective abortion from all abortions in terms of human rights.)  The column relies in part on an April 2011 article appearing in the journal, Social Science and Medicine.  In “There is such a thing as too many daughters, but not too many sons”: A qualitative study of son preference and fetal sex selection among Indian immigrants in the United States, a team of scholars from UC-San Francisco Medical School interviewed 65 immigrant Indian women in the United States who had pursued fetal sex selection on the East and West coasts of the United States between September 2004 and December 2009.  They found that the women often expressed preferences for sons, while some were victims of family coercion.

The lead author, Sunita Puri, previously published The ethics of sex selection: a comparison of the attitudes and experiences of primary care physicians and physician providers of clinical sex selection services.

#### Shattering our Consensus for Conscience
 
Here is a post from Richard Stith--

Freedom of conscience is not a Republican issue.  We used to have strong bi-partisan support for religious liberty.  Tragically, that consensus for conscience has been shattered by the Obama Administration. 

Before Obama, when members of either party voted to support contraception, for example, they included an exemption for conscience.  

In 1999, President Clinton signed into law an appropriations rider requiring most federal health plans to provide contraceptive coverage. But that Clinton mandate exempted "any existing or future plan, if the carrier for the plan objects to such coverage on the basis of religious beliefs."   

During his final illness, Senator Ted Kennedy wrote a letter to Pope Benedict XVI, stating, "I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field, and I'll continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop an overall national health policy that guarantees health care for everyone."

Under Obama, by contrast, conscience protection has been widely thwarted. Think of his administration’s early rescission of the Bush conscience regulations or its requirement that Catholics working against human trafficking refer for abortion.  The HHS mandate is only the latest effort to make religious Americans do what they believe to be morally wrong.

This push against conscience is a grave political mistake.   It literally imperils our republic.  

Why so? 

Simply for this reason:  If the government leaves people alone, they will tolerate much that they consider to be quite wrong.  But if the government demands that they actively participate in what they believe to be evil, many will -- and should -- resist.  

Federal judge John Noonan has written that slavery became polity-destroying only when its advocates escalated their demands from simply wanting the South to be left alone, to demanding that the rest of the nation facilitate slavery’s expansion -- or, as Noonan puts it, to demanding “the moral surrender” of slavery’s critics.

Precisely because our nation is ever more polarized, we need conscience protection more than ever. The only way we will be able to endure our ever deeper disagreements is for the government to cease to require participation in acts that violate the consciences of those who disagree with it. 

In defending liberty of conscience, we are not only defending our freedom to do what we believe good and right.   We are also defending the unity and integrity of our nation.

                                                                            -- Richard Stith, Rally for Religious Freedom, Valparaiso IN, June 8, 2012

----

#### Short survey of young adults' attitudes on abortion
Today Michael New published a short article on the NRO website, The College Republicans’ Report Has Good Advice On Abortion.  He provides a short survey of several opinion polls and concludes:

"The opinions of young adults on the issue of abortion tend to be nuanced. Many polls show that young people are somewhat less likely than older Americans to describe themselves as 'pro-life.' However, there is a growing body of data showing that young adults are actually more likely than older voters to support limiting abortion in specific circumstances."

#### Signs of hope in the academy
I'd like to begin a series of posts about signs of hope in the academy. There has been a lot of bad news lately, esp. involving the federal government. There have also been some signs of hope in our society, such as the Texas legislative battle and abortion clinic closings.

I've seen many articles about the distress in the academy, the demise of a genuine liberal arts education, the chronic illiteracy of students, and their tendency to fall under the influence of radically anti-life ideas.

As the school year begins I'd like to elicit from you any concrete signs you've seen in your work in the academy of real progress in the development of a culture of life. I'm thinking of anecdotes about actions, programs, events by students, by faculty, or by administrators that show that something is stirring among young collegians and among the academics. It could be anything from an increase in evidence in student work of pro-life sentiment to new centers and institutes. Anything in your daily work that makes you say, "There's hope!"

I personally know some very zealous pro-life undergrads, thousands of whom gather annually in DC for the March for Life. I'm also excited about the new Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas.

If you would like to contribute a sign of hope, please e-mail me at provitanews@yahoo.com. I will post it on the blog, plus it will be included in a summary article in the ProVita Online newsletter of the UFL. If you want your name used in the post or article, let me know. Otherwise I'll presume you want to be anonymous.

#### Sixth Circuit Hears Arguments in Down Syndrome Abortion Case
On March 11, 2020, the full Sixth Circuit heard oral arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of Ohio's Down Syndrome Non-Discrimination Act. That law prohibits abortions when the women is seeking abortion due to a diagnosis of Down syndrome. By a 2-1 vote, a 3-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit held the law unconstitutional but the full Sixth Circuit agreed to re-hear the case. For stories about the case, see here and here.

The Seventh Circuit struck down a similar law from Indiana and the US Supreme Court refused to hear the case. Justice Thomas wrote a separate opinion in which he argued that states have "a compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics."

#### Sixth Circuit Strikes Down Kentucky Dismemberment Abortion Ban
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on today's decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit holding unconstitutional Kentucky's ban on dismemberment abortions. The decision was 2-1. Judge Bush dissented on the grounds that the abortion clinic that brought the case did not have standing to assert the rights of women seeking abortions. The same issue--whether abortion clinics have third=party standing-- is currently before the US Supreme Court in the June Medical case.

#### Sixth Circuit to Rehear Ohio's Law Banning Down Syndrome Abortions
Here is a link to a LifeNews article discussing the Sixth Circuit's decision to vacate a panel decision that invalidated Ohio's law banning abortions due to a diagnosis that the unborn baby has Down Syndrome. Indiana's law was struck down by the Seventh Circuit and the US Supreme Court refused to review that decision.

Ohio now has a chance to defend the constitutionality of its law before the full Sixth Circuit.

#### slippery slopes
Here is a link to a good essay by Margaret Somerville entitled--"Euthanasia: it's a long, long, long way down." Her essay discusses the logical and practical slippery slopes, and also the idea that "no potential slippery slope exists" because "the diminishment or repeal of existing restrictions [on euthanasia] is not recognized as a slippery slope, rather, it's seen simply as more fully implementing respect for individual autonomy and the right to self-determination, the rationale used to justify euthanasia in the first place."

#### Sneak peek at upcoming publications
One of the ways to get a heads up on upcoming books in the area of Abortion, Euthanasia, and Infanticide is to go to Amazon (or some other book store, I presume) and type in "Abortion" or whatever in the search field. Then sort by publishing date. The first books that show up will be books that are in the pipeline, but haven't been published yet.  Of course, most of them will not be scholarly, but some will be, such as

Routledge Library Editions: Women's History: Abortion in England 1900-1967 (Volume 7) by Barbara L. Brookes (Oct 30, 2012)
And even those that are more journalistic might be of some scholarly interest.  For instance:
Generation Roe: Inside the Future of the Pro-Choice Movement by Sarah Erdreich(Mar 26, 2013)

#### South Carolina Court Upholds Heartbeat Law
Here is a link to an article by Ed Whelan on the August 23, 2023 decision by the South Carolina Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of that state's heartbeat law. The Court (by a 4-1 vote) rejected the argument that the law (which prohibits abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat) violated the state constitutionaal right to privacy.

#### South Dakota's ban on sex-selection abortion
Here is a good article by Dave Andrusko on South Dakota' s ban on sex-selection abortions. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2014/04/south-dakota-governor-signs-ban-on-sex-selection-abortions/ The article discusses the signifiance of the ban and also effectively rebuts some of the arguments that have been made against these laws.

Richard M.

#### Speakers and schedule for Cardinal O'Connor Prolife Conference
A list of speakers and tenative schedule for the 13th Annual Cardinal O'COnnor Prolife Conference  is now available online.  The conference will be held at Georgetown University on January 22, 2012.  The conference is sponsored by University Faculty for Life, Georgetown University Right to Life, the Georgetown University Knights of Columbus, and the Georgetown University Catholic Daughters of the Americas. 

The winner of the 2012 Rev. Thomas King, S.J. Award will be announced at the conference. The award, named after Fr. King, co-founder and long-time president of UFL, recognizes outstanding collegiate pro-life groups. The winning group is selected based on the work it has done over the past year (2010-2011) and receives a $1,000.00 award to further advance its work.

#### Speakers for O'Connor Conference
The speakers list is now posted for the 2015 Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life on January 24 at Georgetown University, in conjunction with the March for Life. The conference is co-sponsored by UFL.

The keynote speaker will be Cardinal Sean O'Malley, of Boston.

Among the other speakers will be:

	Panel: “The End of Intelligent Debate”

	Mona Charen, syndicated columnist and political analyst
	Mary Hasson, EPPC Senior Fellow

	Jennifer Lahl, founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network: “The Ethics of the New Modern Family

 

#### Speaking of the National Catholic Bioethics Center ...
The new (Summer 2011) issue of their National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly arrived in my mailbox the other day. A few things of note from the contents:

	The "Colloquy" section includes an exchange of letters regarding an article in a previous NCBQ critical of philospher Fr. Martin Rhonheimer's recent Vital Conflicts in Medical Ethics: A Virtue Approach to Craniotomy and Tubal Pregnancies. Fr. Rhonheimer objects to a number of elements of the criticism, and the article's authors respond. (One of Fr. Rhonheimer's collaborators has spoken at a past UFL conference on the topic of this book. For my part - for what it's worth - I'm familiar with much of Fr. Rhonheimer's work, and I think he's made some helpful contributions to moral theory, but I don't agree with all of his theory, nor with all of the ways in which he applies what I think are the valid elements. In Vital Conflicts, I think he's right about the importance of justice, but wrong about its practical meaning, and hence about the moral liceity of some of the practices he addresses.)
	Questions regarding the moral permissibility of various forms of 'cooperation in evil' come up frequently in the lives of people and institutions involved in health care, including, but not only, when there are government mandates regarding practices like abortion and contraception. The new NCBQ issue includes NCBC ethicist Dr. Stephen Napier's essay "Catholic Hospitals, Institutional Review Boards, and Cooperation." Abstract: "This paper addresses a certain lacuna in moral theological reflection. An institutional review board (IRB) reviews research on human subjects and so represents the institution's ethical review mechanism for research. The author argues that if an IRB approves a research project that is immoral, it thereby implicates the institution in formal cooperation. The author also argues that numerous ethical concerns are created by current research enterprises - concerns that extend beyond the 'usual suspects' of embryonic stem cell research and research using cell lines of illicit origin. The author describes these more subtle issues and shows how IRBs at Catholic hospitals can navigate them."
	Finally, the new issue includes NCBC president Dr. John Haas's article "Catholic Teaching regarding the Legitimacy of Neurological Criteria for the Determination of Death." Abstract: "In The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II encouraged organ donation as a genuine act of charity. Some Catholics reject the notion of vital organ transplantation and the use of neurological criteria to determine a donor's death before organs are extracted. This article reviews Church teaching on the use of neurological criteria for determining death - including statements by three popes, a number of pontifical academies and councils, and the U.S. bishops - to show that Catholics may in good conscience offer the gift of life through the donation of their organs after death as determined by those criteria, and may in good conscience receive such organs. This article is not a defense of the legitimacy of neurological criteria for determining death but rather a presentation of the moral guidance currently offered by the Church on the legitimacy of organ donation after death has been determined by their use." (This topic, too, has come up at past UFL conferences. One of these years, I may write and present a paper that I've thought about titling something like "What a Difference a Brain Makes," defending in principle the "brain-death" approach from what strike me as philosophical problems with the critiques.)

#### Speech by Sidewalk Counselors and Clinic "Escorts" Must be Treated the Same
Walter Hoye, a California pastor and sidewalk counselor, filed a federal constitutional challenge to the City of Oakland's “Mother May I” ordinance restricting speech outside abortion clinics after having been arrested twice for approaching women seeking to enter abortion clinics.  The case is Hoye v. Oakland. Evidence in the case established the Pastor Hoye attempted to approach the women "to have a personal, one-on-one conversation with each woman concerning her individual situation and what is causing her to consider abortion.” He often held a sign proclaiming, “Jesus loves you and your baby. Let us help.” The court accepted as true the pastor's testimony that he “never called a woman a baby killer or murderer or told her she would rot in hell, or expressed any judgment like that.”  

Notwithstanding his peaceful approaches, Pastor Hoyt was convicted twice for violating the "Mother May I" or "bubble zone" ordinance that prohibited "knowingly and willfully approaching within eight feet of an individual seeking entry to an abortion clinic if one’s purpose in approaching that person is to engage in conversation, protest, counseling, or various other forms of speech."  Both criminal convictions were eventually overturned on procedural points, but Pastor Hoye continued to challenge the law he had been arrested under.  He lost in the federal trial court.  You can read that opinion here.  Pastor Hoye appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  

A unanimous Ninth Circuit panel (including liberal judges Marsha S. Berzon and Stephen Reinhardt) ruled that the language of the Oakland ordinance was content-neutral applying equally to anyone approaching a woman seeking to enter an abortion clinic, and therefore constitutional on its face.  However, the court went on to say that the statute, as it was being applied by city officials and law enforcement, was unconstitutional since evidence established that the City of Oakland and its police enforced the ordinance only to efforts by sidewalk counselors seeking to persuade women  not to receive abortions, and not to clinic escorts or others seeking to encourage entry into the clinic for the purpose of obtaining an abortion. The Ninth Circuit Opinion can be found here.

#### Spring 2020 Issue of Pro Vita is Available
The Spring 2020 issue of Pro Vita, the newsletter of University Faculty for Life, is available here. Thanks again to Margaret Hughes for her excellent work on the newsletter.

The newsletter contains information about the upcoming annual meeting of University Faculty for Life. This year's conference, which will be held on June 6, 2020, will be via Zoom. The conference features talks by George Weigel,  Father Joseph Koterski, Teresa Collett, and Kevin Miller.

The newsletter also features essays by Father Koterski, Christopher Kaczor, and Richard Myers.

#### Spring 2021 issue of ProVita is now available++Conference information included
Here is a link to the latest issue of ProVita, the newsletter of University Faculty for Life. Thanks to Margaret Hughes for her  work in editing the newsletter!!!

This issue contains information about the upcoming University Faculty for Life conference. The conference will be held on Saturday June 5, 2021 via Zoom. The conference theme is "Prolife Feminism, the Law, and Women's Health."

The featured speakers are Kathleen Mary Raviele, Erika Bachiochi, and Angela Franks. Keith Cassidy and Elizabeth Ring Cassidy are this year's recipients of the Smith Award.

#### SSRN Access to Scholarly Papers
A valuable (and free!) interdisciplinary resource for academic research is the Social Science Research Network.  It contains almost 350,000 abstracts and 280,000 manuscripts of scholarly articles in the areas of health, legal, political, philosophy, and rhetoric.  I use it often to find the newest articles on a subject.  An example of what you might find is a new article by Erika Bachiochi, "Embodied Equality: Debunking Equality Arguments for Abortion Rights," scheduled to be published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy this summer. An abstract and full text is available at:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1873485.

#### Stanford symposium on Roe v. Wade articles published
University Faculty for Life members may be interested to know that recently-published Volume 24, Issue 1, of the STANFORD LAW & POLICY REVIEW (2013), at pages 143-308, contains inter alia, six  articles discussing Roe v. Wade.  At least the issue continues to be discussed.  The pieces are:

Linda J. Wharton & Kathryn Kolbert. Preserving Roe v. Wade...when you win only half the loaf. 24 Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev. 143-165 (2013).

Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, Standing for something, 24 Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev. 167-170 (2013).
Erin Bernstein, The upside of abortion disclosure laws, 24 Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev. 171-214 (2013).

Mark Osler, Roe's ragged remnant: viabilityv 24 Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev. 215-244 (2013).
Caitlin E. Borgmann, Roe v. Wade's 40th anniversary: a moment of truth for the anti-abortion-rights movement? 24 Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev. 245-270 (2013).
Michelle Oberman, Cristina's world: lessons from El Salvador's ban on abortion, 24 Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev. 271-308 (2013).

-Lynn Wardle

 

#### State abortion laws shifting in a pro-life direction
According to a National Catholic Register article, a survey by Americans United for Life, an organization "which works to develop and promote model pro-life legislation for states," state abortion laws are becoming more pro-life and are protecting women more from the ravishes of abortion. The survey esp. highlights Louisiana, Oklahoma (my state of origin!), Arkansas, Arizona, and Pennsylvania as the most pro-life states. The states that have improved the most are Texas, Illinois, North Carolina, and Kansas. The worst laws are in California, Vermont, New York, and Connecticut.

#### State laws restricting abortions
LifeSiteNews has an article, "Progress: States have enacted dozens of pro-life laws so far in 2015," by Dustin Siggins, discussing the increase in the number of state laws restricting abortion in the past few years.  They compare and contrast the Guttmacher Institute statistics with the Americans United for Life statistics.  Both show a clear increase in laws restricting abortion, but because they count differently, they come up with different numbers.

#### State-by-state stats on abortion between 2010 and 2013
The Washington Post published some AP statistics comparing the annual numbers of abortions in each state between 2010 and 2013. Five states do not keep statistics: California, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Wyoming.

#### States Sue to Force Little Sisters of the Poor to Fund Abortions
Here is a story from LifeNews about this continuing saga. The Trump Administration announced that it would end the HHS Mandate. Now, California and Pennsylvania have filed lawsuits seeking to take away the exemptions for the Little Sisters of the Poor and others. Here is information from Becket, which is representing the Sisters.

#### Staying at Doubletree for the Conference
Note that if you are planning to stay at the Doubletree for the conference, you should call them at 612-332-6800 rather than using the online registration, which seems not to be working properly. Use the group code FL5. See more about the hotels here.

#### Stefano Gennarini on the Mexico City Policy
Here is a link to a good essay by Stefano Gennarini from C-Fam. The essay is entitled "The Genius of the Mexico City Policy and the Pro-Life Legacy of President Trump." Here is the conclusion:

"Ronald Reagan was a visionary pro-life president. He saw the need to stop the global abortion industry and played his part in trying to silence and thwart it. But that was over thirty years ago. President Trump has an opportunity to forge his own legacy as a pro-life president. To do that, he must continue to update, reinforce, and apply the principles underlying the Mexico City Policy in a way that is consistent with Reagan’s original vision."

#### Stem-cell research and “direct conversion.”
Colleagues interested in stem cell research may find information about “direct conversion” helpful; apparently, this development may make embryonic stem-cell research needless.  Further information can be found at http://www.lifenews.com/2010/11/29/bio-3220/.

#### Stephen Gilles on Dobbs
Here is a link to an amicus brief filed by Professor Stephen Gilles. Gilles argues that the Court ought to overrule Roe and Casey. Gilles notes that this outcome would be clear under the Glucksberg Court's approach to identifying fundamental rights. Glucksberg emphasized  "history and tradition" and under such an approach there is no way to find a fundamental right to abortion. But, Gilles argues, the same result (no fundamental right to abortion) should apply under the approach the Court used in Obergefell, the Court's same-sex marriage decision. The Obergefell approach emphasized "reasoned judgment."

In his brief, Gilles explains that Roe and Casey  are egregiously wrong by the standards of “reasoned judgment” described and applied in Obergefell. He concludes that the right to elective abortion has no foundation in either of the tests the Court has used to determine whether an asserted right is fundamental.

#### Steve Aden commentary on the failure of abortion rights groups to challenge new pro-life laws
Steve Aden from the Alliance Defense Fund has this interesting perspective on the failure of abortion rights groups to challenge new pro-life legislation. See http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/26/abortion-advocates-playing-defense-legally-in-roe-v-wade-battle/ Aden concludes his article with this view:

"By ignoring a tidal wave of legal authority that insists that unborn children are valuable and worthy of legal protection, CRR and Planned Parenthood may be setting themselves up to lose the war of public support, even if they win the next battle in the courts.  And because law follows public opinion, Roe cannot stand when the ground of public support for – or acquiescence in – abortion on demand has eroded away underneath it."

Richard M.

#### Stith quoted in March for Life article
UFL member Richard Stith was quoted in an article by Terry Mattingly of GetReligion about the March for Life called "Define 'hundreds,' please: New York Times does epic job of dissin' March For Life."
Among those in the crowd was Richard Stith, 71, an Indiana law professor who called himself a part of a segment he dubbed “lefties for life” – people who he said view abortion opposition as part of a broader “consistent ethic for life.” In that, he said, is an opposition to the death penalty and any violence against LGBT people. He said he had been a member of a group called Socialists for Life as well and always felt welcome at the march.
 

#### Stith Sculpture video
Rosemarie Smith, wife of UFL board member Richard Stith and frequent UFL Conference attendee, recently produced a 2 1/2 minute video about her sculpture display called "Tragedy and Triumph" Here is the artist's statement:

"Tragedy is simple in its depiction of the relationship between mother and unborn child, each ceramic figure clean like a child's wooden puzzle piece. The removal of the child, left askew, is a portrayal of abortion.  The mother is left empty.Triumph appears to celebrate the mother’s domination over the fetal child,  but this domination dehumanizes the mother rather than the child."

The video is extremely powerful.

 

#### Student Essay Contest (March for Life)
Forms for the March for Life Education and Defense Fund’s annual student essay contest are now available at

http://www.marchforlife.org/content/view/46/42/.

Since the march will be held in Washington, DC on Monday, 24 January 2011, faculty colleagues should make plans now to request time off to attend this event.

#### Student's Guide to Bioethics
The U.S. Jérôme Lejeune Foundation has recently released for download an English version of a revised edition of their Student's Guide to Bioethics (Manuel Bioéthique des Jeunes, 2006). The guide "puts critical questions facing our society and culture on an objectively scientific basis. It encourages readers to make well-informed judgments based upon scientific fact and sound ethical principles. The approach is rigorous, yet accessible making this small book a valuable educational tool, not just for young people but also for adults. [Emphasis mine]"

Table of Contents includes:

1 • The story of a little human being

2 • Abortion

3 • Prenatal testing

4 • Assisted reproductive technology

5 • Preimplantation genetic diagnosis

6 • Embryo research

7 • The end of life

8 • Organ donation

9 • Gender theory and sexual orientation

Jérôme Lejeune (1926-1994), who was the geneticist who discovered the cause of Down's Syndrome (trisomy 21), and is a candidate for Catholic sainthood, was an adviser to UFL.

#### Students for Life America Planned Parenthood Project
Here is an article from the National Catholic Register about Students for Life America's Planned Parenthood Project, a campaign where they disseminated information about PP on their campus to raise awareness of the real intentions, tactics, and affect of PP. You may have seen them on your campus. The reactions, both positive and negative, are very enlightening.

#### study demonstrates that parental notice laws reduce abortion rates
Michael New recently published a study that demonstrates that parental notice laws reduce abortion rates by 15%. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/03/28/study-pro-life-parental-notification-laws-reduce-abortions-15/

Richard M.

#### Study looks at abortion-breast cancer link
According to LifeSiteNews.com, researches have conducted a review of 72 studies. The study, "Breast Cancer and Induced Abortion: A Comprehensive Review of Breast Development and Pathophysiology, the Epidemiologic Literature, and Proposal for Creation of Databanks to Elucidate All Breast Cancer Risk Factors," by Dr. Angela Lanfranchi and Patrick Fagan, Ph.D., was published in Issues in Law and Medicine. Their conclusion was that there is enough evidence of a link between abortion and breast cancer that a systematic, robust study of the link is warranted. The mechanism involved appears to be the same mechanism that causes an increase in breast cancer for those who are childlessness, have premature birth before 32 weeks, and have second trimester miscarriages.
The authors analyzed the 72 epidemiological studies using guidelines that establish nine criteria that help determine whether a cause-effect relationship exists between a potential risk factor and a disease.

After demonstrating that all nine criteria were met in the epidemiological evidence, Lanfranchi and Fagan stated: “We see that many studies of induced abortion demonstrate significant associations, across multiple cultures and with some apparent specificity of cause, such as hormone exposure. The association manifests itself in the appropriate order, demonstrates a dose effect, is biologically plausible and coherent with existing science and has been demonstrated by analogy.”

#### Study of emotional impact of sidewalk counselors
I have blogged about the increasing legal enforcement of the Free Access to Clinic Entrance Act here. There will be an interesting presentation on the emotion impact of counselors outside abortion clinics on Oct. 23 in Washington DC at the North American Forum for Family Planning (Forum), the combined annual meeting of the Society of Family Planning (SFP) and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America National Medical Committee® (NMC). This is an abstract of the presentation:

EFFECT OF CLINIC PROTESTERS ON WOMEN'S EMOTIONAL RESPONSE TO ABORTION

Foster D
University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
Barar R, Gould H, Weitz T

Objectives: Little is known about how antiabortion protesters affect women's experience with abortion. This study seeks to understand who experiences and is upset by protesters and how protesters affect emotional response to an abortion.

Methods: Between 2008 and 2010, 725 women who received an abortion at 25 sites across the United States were interviewed 1 week after their appointment as part of the Turnaway Study.

Results: Nearly half (49%) of women saw a protester; 29% reported being spoken to, and 17% reported that protesters tried to stop them from entering the clinic. Women under age 20, African American women and Latinas were twice as likely as other women to report protesters attempting to stop them from entering a clinic. Among those who saw a protester, nearly half reported that they were not at all upset, 25% reported being a little upset, 15% were “quite a lot” or “extremely” upset. Women who had difficulty
deciding about the abortion were more likely to report being upset by protesters. In both bivariate and multivariate models, seeing, being spoken to and being stopped by protesters are not associated with differences in regret, relief, guilt, happiness, sadness or anger 1 week after their appointment.

Conclusions: Protesters do upset some women seeking abortion services. However, the effect of exposure to protesters does not seem to have an effect on emotions toward the abortion 1 week later.

Abstracts / Contraception 84 (2011) 303

#### Successful UFL conference at Notre Dame
Here is a link to my post on the recent, successful conference at Notre Dame.  http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/06/university-faculty-for-life-conference.html#tp

Many thanks to Our Sunday Visitor Institute for its generous support of the conference and to everyone at Notre Dame (in particular Angela Pfister) for their organizational efforts and hospitality. By all accounts, this was one of UFL's best conferences and we look forward to an excellent conference at BYU next June 1-2, 2012.

Richard M.

#### Summer 2017 issue of ProVita is now available
The Summer 2017 issue of ProVita, the newsletter of University Faculty for Life, is now available at this link.

Thanks to Margaret Hughes for editing this newsletter!!!

#### Summer 2019 issue of Pro Vita is now available
The summer 2019 issue of Pro Vita (the newsletter of University Faculty for Life) is now available at this link. Thanks to Margaret Hughes (Thomas Aquinas College) for her excellent editorial work.

The newsletter features a brief recap of the June 2019 annual conference and a preview of next year's conference, which will be held on June 5-6, 2020 at the Manhattan campus of St. John's University.  The newsletter also includes a summary of recent legal developments relating to pro-life issues and an essay by Chris Kaczor on conscientious objection.

#### Summer 2020 Issue of Pro Vita is now available!!!
Thanks to the fine editorial work of Margaret Hughes, the Summer 2020 issue of Pro Vita, the newsletter of University Faculty for Life, is now available. Here.

This issue features regular contributions from Father Joe Koterski, Chris Kaczor, and Richard Myers. There is a brief recap of the 2020 annual meeting and the usual collection of news and notes.

In her column, Mary Lemmons (President of University Faculty for Life) notes the theme for our 2021 conference:

"Our overarching theme is Prolife Feminism, the Law, and Women’s Health. This broad topic includes issues surrounding pill-induced abortions, as well as the impact of abortion not only on society, the law, and families, but also on the biological, mental, and spiritual health of women and their partners. Also included is the quest for social policies and laws supportive of pregnancy, embryo rights, fetal well-being, fatherhood, and families. Other topics for this conference include the cultural and legal status of inalienable rights, especially the rights to conscientious objection and to protection from exploitation at the end of life both in the United States as well as around the world."

 

#### Sunday Long Island lecture on Baby Safe Havens
 THE UNIVERSITY FACULTY FOR LIFE
LONG ISLAND CHAPTER
presents a lecture
on
Children of Hope Foundation/Baby Safe Haven
with
Timothy Jaccard
at
Molloy College (Amphitheatre, Kellenberg Hall)
1000 Hempstead Ave.,
Rockville Centre, NY 11571-5002
(For directions check the website -  www.molloy.edu)
on
Sunday, October 5, 2014
2:30 PM Refreshments, 3:00 – 4:30 PM lecture
All are welcome – free of charge – JOIN US  The newborn Baby Anglica was left in a toilet covered with wet toilet paper. Nassau County Police Department paramedic, Timothy Jaccard, was called to the scene and wept. The seasoned medical technician knew he had to do something.  Thus began what was to be his life’s mission – to save as many children as he could from succumbing to these desperate acts. In 1998 Jaccard founded the Long Island-based nonprofit AMT – Ambulance Medical Technicians Children of Hope Foundation /Baby Safe Haven. “Safe Havens” are designated public places, such as police stations, fire houses and hospitals where babies can be left safely with no questions asked. Today, Timothy Jaccard will tell us his story about the many babies that were saved through his efforts and the Children of Hope Foundation.
For further information contact: Dr. Clara Sarrocco – Csarrocco@aol.com  Re:  Jaccard lecture
Sponsored by Long Island Chapter of University Faculty for Life & Molloy College Campus Ministries.

#### Supplement to Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought published
Along with Joe Varacalli and Michael Coulter, I had the privilege of co-editing the 3rd volume of the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy. The original 2 volumes were published in 2007 (Steve Krason was the 4th co-editor of those volumes). Here are a couple of links to volume 3.  https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780810882669 and http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Catholic-Social-Thought-Science/dp/0810882663/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1

The 3rd volume includes a number of entries on pro-life topics. For example, the volume includes entries on Dignitas Personae (authored by Father Joseph Koterski), Ectopic Pregnancy (Richard Myers), Embryo Adoption/ and or Rescue (William E. May), Eugenics (Father John Berry), Infanticide (Chris Kaczor), International Law and the Right to Life (Pierro Tozzi), Palliative Sedation (Joseph Piccione), Partial-birth Abortion (Rick Hinshaw), Persistent Vegetative State , Feeding and Hydrating Persons in (William E. May and Christian Brugger),  and the Right to Life movement (Keith Cassidy).

Richard M.

#### Supreme Court agrees to hear important First Amendment case involving pro-life speech
The Supreme Court agreed to hear McCullen v. Coakley--an important First Amenedment case involving the constitutionality of a Massachusetts law providing for a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics. http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/06/details-on-abortion-protest-grant/

Mark Rienzi, from Catholic University, is the counsel of record.

Richard M.

#### Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Mississippi Abortion Case
The US Supreme Court today agreed to decide Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. For background on Dobbs, see this link.

The Court limited its consideration to the first question presented by Mississippi's cert petition: "Whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional."

The cert petition was filed almost a year ago and there was been much speculation about the reasons for the Court's delay in deciding whether to hear the case.

Dobbs, which involves the constitutionality of Mississippi's ban on most abortions after 15 weeks, sets up a major challenge to the Court's abortions decisions. The case will be argued in the Court's next Term and likely won't be decided until the spring of 2022.

 

#### Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Texas Heartbeat Case
Here is a link a story from Scotusblog about the Court's new orders in the Texas Heartbeat case. The Court will hear oral argument in the Texas case on November 1, 2021. The Court did not grant the petition asking the Court to decide whether to overrule Roe and Casey, an issue that is certainly on the table in the Dobbs case, which will be argued on December 1, 2021.

#### Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Title X Cases
The US Supreme Court today agreed to hear three cases involving a Department of Health and Human Services rule that prohibits recipients of Title X funds from making elective abortion referrals in Title X clinics and also requires them to maintain physical separation between those clinics and any abortion-related activities. The lower courts have issued conflicting rulings on the legality of the HHS Rule.

Here is link to a short item on Scotusblog that notes the three cases.

#### Supreme Court Allows Kentucky AG to Intervene to Defend Pro-Life Law
Here is a link to a Scotusblog report on the Court's decision in Cameron v. EMW Women's Surgical Center, P.S.C. On March 3, 2022, the Court reversed a Sixth Circuit decision that had refused to allow Daniel Cameron, the Attorney General of Kentucky, to intervene in a suit involving the constitutionality of a Kentucky statute banning dismemberment abortions.

After the Sixth Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling finding the Kentucky statute unconstitutional,  the Kentucky Governor decided not to pursue further efforts to  defend the constitutionality of the statute. Cameron then sought to intervene but the Sixth Circuit  refused to allow intervention. The Supreme Court ruled, by an 8-1 vote, that the Sixth Circuit's ruling on intervention was in error. The Supreme Court's decision will allow Cameron to pursue efforts to defend the constitutionality of the Kentucky statute.

The Court's ruling will help to ensure that pro-life legislation is defended in court, even in situations when the state's governor doesn't support the law.

#### Supreme Court Arguments in an Important Case dealing with Abortion and Free Speech
The US Supreme court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday March 20, 2018 in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra. The case involves the constitutionality of a California law that requires pregnancy care centers to "advertise" the availability of free or low-cost abortions. Here is a link to a good essay by Andrew T. Walker discussing the case. Here is his concluding paragraph:

"In upholding the value, dignity, and rights of unborn children, pregnancy care centers do no harm. On the contrary, they are a bulwark against a culture that sees the unborn child as disposable. Pregnancy care centers do not restrict the ability of women to seek out abortion; they simply provide a pro-life alternative for those who freely enter their doorways. They should never be coerced into betraying their mission by taking part in the abortion culture’s brazen assault on unborn life."

#### Supreme Court Arguments in Kentucky Abortion Case
Here is a link to a Scotusblog report on yesterday's argument in Cameron v. EMW Women's Surgical Center. The Kentucky statute bans dismemberment abortions but the Supreme Court arguments were focused on a narrow, albeit important procedural issue. The issue before the Court is--"Whether a state attorney general vested with the power to defend state law should be permitted to intervene after a federal court of appeals invalidates a state statute when no other state actor will defend the law."

Most observers think that the Court will allow intervention. This is important because such a ruling will help to ensure that pro-life laws passed by a state legislature will be vigorously defended in court, even when the law is not supported by the state's governor.

#### Supreme Court blocks enforcement of Louisiana admitting privileges law
Here is a link to a LifeNews.com story on the Supreme Court's action in June Medical Services, LLC v. Gee. Louisiana's law requires abortionists to obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals. The US Supreme Court struck down a similar Texas law in 2016 in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt.  In September 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit distinguished Whole Woman's Health and rejected a constitutional challenge to the Louisiana law.

Late last night (February 7, 2019), the US Supreme Court granted a stay of the Fifth Circuit ruling. That action prevents the law from going into effect while the US Supreme Court decides whether to hear the case. The Court's decision was 5-4, with Chief Justice Roberts joining four Justices (Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, Kagan, and Sotomayor) who were in the majority in Whole Woman's Health.  Chief Justice Roberts was in dissent in Whole Woman's health. The dissenters from yesterday's decision were Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas.

The Court is likely to give full consideration to the case, but that likely won't happen until the Supreme Court's 2019-2020 Term. A decision will not likely come before June of 2020.

The case has been closely watched since most observers believe that there are five Justices (Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas) who are more likely to uphold laws restricting abortions. The Court's decision may have been an effort to postpone full consideration of abortion cases.

 

#### Supreme Court decides not to hear cases involving state efforts to defund Planned Parenthood
The US Supreme Court today declined to hear cases involving state efforts to defund Planned Parenthood. Three Justices (Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch) dissented from the denial of certiorari. The dissenters said the Court should have granted review to address the important legal issue the cases presented--whether there is a private right of action under the Medicaid Act. The lower court rulings enabled Medicaid recipients to challenge state determinations of "qualified" Medicaid providers under federal law. The dissenters thought the Court declined review because various Planned Parenthood affiliates brought the challenges. The dissenters noted, however, that the legal question presented "has nothing to do with abortion." The dissenting opinion further noted that "Some tenuous connection to a politically fraught issue does not justify abdicating our judicial duty." Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh voted with the majority to decline review.

As noted, the cases did not deal with abortion directly and so one should not read too much into the Court's denial of review. It may be though, as the dissent suggested, that the Court wanted to avoid a case with sensitive political implications. This suggests that the Court may, for the moment at least, not take up cases dealing with the right to abortion.

 

#### Supreme Court holds oral argument in Texas abortion case
Here, from LifeNews and National Right to Life News, are reports on yesterday's oral argument in the Texas abortion case.

http://www.lifenews.com/2016/03/02/supreme-court-holds-hearing-on-texas-law-saving-tens-of-thousands-of-babies-from-abortion/

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2016/03/behind-the-scenes-as-the-supreme-court-hears-first-abortion-case-since-2007/#.Vth69UnSnIU

 

#### Supreme Court invalidates Texas abortion law (H.B. 2)
By a 5-3 vote, the US Supreme Court today invalidated two key features of Texas's H.B. 2. In an opinion by Justice Breyer, the Court invalidated the requirement that doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges at local hospitals and the requirement that abortion clinics meet the standards Texas sets for ambulatory surgical centers. Here is a link to the opinion.  http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/15-274_p8k0.pdf

Because the vote was 5-3, Justice Scalia's participation in the decision would not have affected the outcome.

Justice Thomas's dissent notes that the decision "exemplifies the Court's troubling tendency 'to bend the rules when any effort to limit abortion, or even to speak in opposition to abortion, is at issue.'" He continued: "I write separately to emphasize how today's decision perpetuates the Court's habit of applying different rules to different constitutional rights--especially the putative right to abortion."

Richard M.

#### Supreme Court of South Africa rejects lower court decision allowing assisted suicide/euthanasia
Here is a link to a blog post by Alex Schadenberg about the recent (December 6, 2016) decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa rejecting a lower court ruling that allowed assisted suicide/euthanasia.

Here  is a link to the opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

#### Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Challenge to Kentucky's Ultrasound Informed Consent Law
Here is a link to a Lifenews story about the Court's refusal to grant a cert petition from a Kentucky abortion clinic that had unsuccessfully challenged a Kentucky law that requires that abortion doctors perform ultrasounds and show and describe fetal images to patients before abortions, as well as play an audible heartbeat of the fetus. The Sixth Circuit (by a 2-1 vote) had rejected a First Amendment challenge to the Kentucky law and the US Supreme Court (without comment) refused to hear the case.

#### Supreme Court refuses to review decision invalidating Arizona abortion restriction
On Monday December 15, 2014, the Supreme Court refused to review a Ninth Circuit ruling that held unconstitutional an Arizona "law that requires abortionists to use federal standards in administering chemical abortions." http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2014/12/supreme-court-declines-to-review-decision-blocking-enforcement-of-arizona-abortion-law-but-other-appeals-courts-have-upheld-similar-law/#.VJBBXNjjjcs  The FDA protocol, which was developed in 2000, calls for RU-486 to be used only in the first seven weeks of pregnancy.  Since that time, many abortion clinics have departed from the FDA standards and the Arizona law was designed to prevent these "off-label" uses.

The Ninth Circuit's ruling is inconsistent with rulings from other federal courts that have upheld similar laws in Texas and Ohio. The courts have disagreed about whether these laws are consistent with the "undue burden" standard the Supreme Court developed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The Supreme Court's decision not to review the Arizona law is not a ruling on the merits and does not have precedential effect. That has not stopped speculation about the Court's refusal to review the case.  Many observers believe that the Supreme Court will soon agree to hear a same-sex marriage case and it may be that the Court is not inclined to consider an abortion case at the same time it considers same-sex marriage.

Richard M.

#### Supreme Court Strikes Down Louisiana Admitting Privileges Law
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's admitting privileges law. The statute was similar to the Texas statute that the Court invalidated in 2016 in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt. Chief Justice Roberts joined with Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan. The Chief Justice concluded "that because Louisiana’s Act 620 imposes a burden on access to abortion just as severe as that imposed by the nearly identical Texas law invalidated four years ago in Whole Woman’s,  it cannot stand under principles of stare decisis."

 

#### Supreme Court to Decide Whether Kentucky AG Can Defend Pro-Life Law
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the Court's decision to grant review in Cameron v. EMW Women's Surgical Center.

This case involves a Kentucky statute banning dismemberment abortions. The State of Kentucky initially defended the constitutionality of the law but abandoned its defense after a federal court of appeals invalidated the law.

Daniel Cameron, Kentucky’s attorney general, then asked to intervene to defend the law but the federal court of appeals  rejected that request. The Supreme Court agreed to hear Cameron's request to address the intervention issue. The Court didn't agree to review the constitutionality of the statute.

#### Supreme Court to hear important abortion case
Here is a link to a report on Scotusblog about the Court's grant of cert in Whole Woman's Health v. Cole. The Court will address two provisions of a Texas statute: a requirement that the doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their office and that abortion facilities meet the same health standards as other ambulatory surgical centers.

This is the Court's first abortion case since the partial-birth abortion case (Gonzalez v. Carhart) in 2007.

http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/11/court-to-rule-on-abortion-clinic-restrictions/

Here is a link to a story on LifeSiteNews.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-supreme-court-to-review-texas-pro-life-law

 

#### Supreme Court to hear Louisiana Admitting Privileges Case
The US Supreme Court decided to review the June Medical Services case, which involves the constitutionality of Louisiana's law that requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. In 2016, the Court invalidated a similar Texas law in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt. In September 2018, in June Medical Services, the Fifth Circuit distinguished Whole Woman's Health and upheld Louisiana's admitting privileges law. On February 7, 2019, the US Supreme Court stayed the Fifth Circuit's ruling. The grant of the stay was by a 5-4 vote.

Supporters of abortion rights were hoping that the Court would summarily reverse the Fifth Circuit but the Court has now decided to hear oral arguments in the case. The decision to hear the case sets the stage for what could be a major ruling. The Court could of course decide to overrule Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Most observers anticipate though that the Court will uphold the Louisiana law in a narrow ruling. The Court might overrule its 2016 decision in Whole Woman's Health or simply distinguish the Louisiana case on its facts, which is what the Fifth Circuit did.  Either approach would afford states more of an opportunity to restrict abortion.

#### Supreme Court to hear Oral Arguments in Louisiana Abortion Case
Here is preview of the upcoming oral arguments in June Medical Services v. Russo, which involves the constitutionality of a Louisiana law requiring that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at local hospitals.  The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday March 4, 2020. A decision isn't expected until late June.

#### Supreme Court Upholds FDA Regulation Requiring In-person Visits to Obtain Abortion Pill
Here is Scotusblog's account of the Court's 6-3 ruling: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted a request from the Food and Drug Administration to reinstate a federal requirement that a pill used to induce abortion in the early stages of pregnancy be picked up in person from a health care provider. A federal district judge had suspended that requirement last summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic and then left that ruling in place after the justices in October directed the FDA to return to the lower court to seek narrower relief. The Supreme Court’s new order means that the FDA will once again be able to enforce the regulations requiring in-person visits."

#### Supreme Court Upholds Indiana's Fetal Remains law
Here is a link to today's decision from the US Supreme Court. The Court upheld the constitutionality of Indiana's law requiring the humane disposal of fetal remains. The court declined to review another provision of Indiana law prohibiting abortions due to the race, sex, or disability of the unborn child. The Court explained that the Seventh Circuit (which had invalidated the Indiana law) was the first federal court of appeals to review such a law. Accordingly, the Court explained that it would "follow [its] ordinary practice of denying petitions insofar as they raise legal issues that have not been considered by additional Courts of Appeals."

Justice Thomas concurred and wrote a lengthy opinion exploring Indiana's "compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics." Justice Thomas emphasized that the "decision to allow further percolation should not be interpreted as agreement with the decisions below. Enshrining a constitutional right to an abortion based solely on the race, sex, or disability of an unborn child, as Planned Parenthood advocates, would constitutionalize the views if the 20th-century eugenics movement. In other contexts, the Court has been zealous in vindicating the rights of people even potentially subjected to race, sex, and disability discrimination."

#### Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Rejects Fundamental Right to Assisted Suicide
Here is a link to an article in the National Right to Life News about this important decision. This decision follows the trend (which is of course not universal) of state  supreme courts (even quite liberal such courts) rejecting the argument that there is a fundamental constitutional right to assisted suicide under the state constitution.

Separate opinions in the case (which is called Kligler v. Healy) were more receptive to the argument that there is a narrow right to assisted suicide.

 

#### symposium on end-of-life issues
The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network is sponsoring a symposium on end-of-life issues on March 31, 2011. The symposium, which will be held at Ave Maria School of Law, is entitled "The Erosion of Medical Ethics." Here is a link to the Lifenews story on the symposium.  http://www.lifenews.com/2011/03/28/terri-schiavos-family-sponsors-symposium-on-end-of-life-issues/

Richard M.

#### Symposium on Gender Justice in the Americas: A Transnational Dialogue on Violence, Sexuality, Reproduction, and Human Rights
The Miami Law Review has published a symposium issue containing papers and talks given at the 2011 conference involving advocates and scholars from 20 countries in North and South America to explore Gender Justice in the Americas: A Transnational Dialogue on Violence, Sexuality, Reproduction, and Human Rights. The introduction to the symposium issue is now available on SSRN here.  The introduction breifly describes each article contained in Volume 65 of the law review.  Articles of particular interest to prolife faculty include:

Modern Day Inquisitions by Rebecca Cook;

Negative Impacts of Abortion Criminalization in Brazil: Denial of Women’s Reproductive Autonomy and Human Rights by Beatriz Galli;

Who Is a Human Rights Defender? An Essay on Sexual and Reproductive Rights Defenders by Cynthia Soohoo and Diana Hortsch;

Multiple Discrimination in Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health: Experiences from Latin America and the Caribbean by Ximena Casas; and 

Sexual Rights and Religion: Same-Sex Marriage and Lawmakers Catholic Identity in Argentina by Juan Marco Vaggione.

#### Targeting Downs Syndrome by Regulation
Attorney Mark Leach has a great new blog post on new regulations based on the Institute of Medicine's recommendations and their impact on unborn children with Down's Syndrome.  His fear is that the prenatal diagnosis of genetic diseases will be used to pressure mothers to abort their down syndrome babies.  He notes that public comments on the proposed regulations are invited and expresses the hope that enough people will comment that the Department of Health will modify its proposed regulations.

#### Telemedicine and Medical Abortions
The August 2011 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology discusses the emerging practice of providing medical abortions via telephone in Effectiveness and Acceptability of Medical Abortion Provided Through Telemedicine.  Interestingly the study reports slightly higher abortion completion rates among patients served through telemedicine (99%) over those provided services face-to-face (97%).  The study also reports that twenty-five percent of telemedicine patients said they would have preferred being in the same room with the doctor. No significant differences in the prevalence of adverse events were reported during the study period among telemedicine patients compared with face-to-face patients.

Obstetrics & Gynecology: August 2011 - Volume 118 - Issue 2, Part 1 - pp 296-303
 doi: 10.1097/AOG.0b013e318224d110

#### Tennessee Bills to Restrict Abortion
Here is a link to a LifeNews story about recent developments in Tennessee. The Tennessee legislature is considering a bill to prohibit abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detectable. Another bill would ban all abortions in the state. The story also reports on the split within the pro-life movement about the advisability of passing a law that is likely to be invalidated by the courts.

#### Tennessee passes unborn victims of violence act
Here is a story discussing the passage of another state Unborn Victims of Violence Act.  http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/05/tennessee-now-recognizes-unborn-children-as-victims-of-crimes/   These state laws and the federal law have the potential to undermine Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.  National Right to Life's  website contains extensive information about the issue. http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_Victims/index.html 

Richard M.

#### Tentative schedule for 2017 University Faculty for Life conference is now available
Here is a link to the tentative schedule for the upcoming University Faculty for Life conference on June 9-10, 2017 at St. Thomas Law in Minneapolis. The schedule includes  a rich collection of papers on various pro-life topics. Father Robert Spitzer S.J. will receive the Smith Award and the conference features plenary talks by Dr. David Prentice, Patrick Lee, and Father Kevin Fitzgerald S.J..

Here is a link for other information about the conference.

 

#### Teresa Collett defending Pain-Capable Child Protection Acts
Here is a good article on the Public Discourse website  by Teresa Collett (president of University Faculty for Life) defending Pain-Capable Child Protection Acts. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/04/5176 Teresa explains:  "These laws are premised on the idea that an unborn child’s capacity to feel pain, independent of fetal viability, is sufficient to establish the humanity of the child and to sustain a limited prohibition on abortion. Like partial-birth abortion bans, these laws advance public recognition of the unborn child’s humanity and should be supported." The article discusses the evidence supporting the view that unborn children can feel pain at about 20 weeks post-fertilization. It also discusses the constitutionality of these bans. On the constitutional issue, Teresa concludes:"

Recognition of a compelling state interest in the protection of pain-capable unborn children does not require the Court to reject a woman’s liberty interest in obtaining an abortion or the balancing framework of Casey.  It only asks the Court to recognize the legislature’s ability to use new scientific evidence that supports a strong state interest in regulating abortions at twenty weeks after fertilization. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Acts modestly expand upon the states’ interests in the protection of fetal life and affirm the value of unborn life as recognized in the latest Supreme Court cases addressing abortion."

Richard M.

#### Teresa Collett on Ecuador abortion legalization battle
UFL President Teresa Collett was quoted in a LifeNews.com article, "Human Rights Watch Pressures Ecuador to Legalize Abortion, Pro-Life Nation Fights Back." In it she responds to the Human Life Watch assertion that abortion restriction laws are "cruel" and "degrading" to women.
The legal claim is absolutely false, say international legal experts like Professor Teresa Collett of the University of St. Thomas. Collett said the demand made by HRW to Dr. Mauro Andino of Ecuador’s Justice commission has “no basis” in law. The pressure to “legalize abortion in a broad range of cases has no basis” in UN treaties or any other legally binding convention to which Ecuador belongs, she said.
 

#### Teresa Collett's comment on the Gosnell case
Here is a link to a very good op-ed by Teresa Collett. Teresa explains why Gosnell could not have been prosecuted in Minnesota.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/207450371.html?page=1&c=y&refer=y

Richard M.

#### Texas AG to Appeal Ruling Invalidating Law Banning Dismemberment Abortions
Here is an article from LifeNews about Attorney General Ken Paxton's decision to appeal the decision  by a federal district court judge holding Texas's ban Ion dismemberment abortions unconstitutional. Paxton stated: “No just society should tolerate the tearing of living human beings to pieces.” Paxton added that the law is constitutional, “treats the unborn with dignity and respect and protects the integrity of the medical profession.”

#### Texas Governor Signs Born Alive Act
Here is a link to an article from LifeNews about Governor Abbot signing the Born Alive Act, which provides protection to infants who survive abortions.

#### Texas Heartbeat Act
Here is a link to a Scotusblog report on the Court's refusal to enjoin the Texas Heartbeat Act,  which prohibits abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy. The Act does not permit state officials to enforce the law. The Act authorizes private parties to sue anyone who violates the Act.

Here is a link to a post by Ed Whelan discussing some of the legal issues.

#### Texas Heartbeat Case Argued Before the Fifth Circuit
Here is a link to a story in Bloomberg about the latest developments in the Texas Hearbeat case. The US Supreme Court, which refused a request to enjoin the law pending the challenges to the constitutionality of the statute, suggested that Texas licensing authorities might be proper defendants in the suits challenging the constitutionality of the Texas law. The US Supreme Court did not definitively settle that issue and today's oral arguments considered whether the 5th Circuit ought to ask the Texas Supreme Court to weigh in on that issue of Texas law.

#### Texas Heartbeat Law Still in Effect
Here is a link to a story in National Review about this morning's decisions from the Supreme Court in the cases dealing with challenges to the Texas Heartbeat law.  The Court allowed the challenges by abortion providers to continue as to certain defendants but allowed the law to remain in effect.

Here is a link to the principal decision.

#### Texas passes pro-life law
Here  is a link to a story in the National Right to Life News about a new pro-life law in Texas. The story begins: "Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 8 into law. Senate Bill 8 prohibits partial-birth abortion, regulates the disposition of abortion victims, and, as amended, bans dismemberment abortions."

#### Texas sonogram law can be enforced
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed a Texas law requiring that doctors show sonograms to women seeking an abortion to be enforced. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TEXAS_ABORTION_LAW?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

A lower court had prevented the law from being enforced but the 5th Circuit has now reveresed that ruling. The court, in an opinion by Judge Edith Jones,  noted that states are permitted to require doctors to disclose truthful, nonmisleading and relevant information. As the AP story states:  

"'Relevant' informed consent may entail not only the physical and psychological risks to the expectant mother facing this `difficult moral decision,' but also the state's legitimate interests in `protecting the potential life within her,'" Chief Judge Edith H. Jones wrote in the appeals' decision.

Here is a link to the court's opinion. http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/11/11-50814-CV0.wpd.pdf

Richard M.

#### Texas sonogram law challenged
Texas recently enacted a law that requires that women considering abortion to be able to view a sonogram. The law, which went into effect on May 20, 2011, has just been challenged in federal court. See http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/06/pro-abortion-legal-firm-files-lawsuit-challenging-texas-sonogram-law/#more-2476 There has been a recent trend for pro-abortion groups not to challenge pro-life legislation. This case will be an important test of an increasingly popular pro-life legislative effort.

Richard M.

#### Texas Supreme Court Decision in Heartbeat Case
Here is a short article by Ed Whelan reporting on a decision by the Texas Supreme Court. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit had asked the Texas Supreme Court to decide whether the Texas Heartbeat law could be enforced by Texas licensing officials. The Texas Supreme Court said no--and that decision effectively ends the abortion clinic's constitutional challenge to the law.

#### That Albuquerque vote
As far as I know, this is the only time in the modern world that there has been a popular vote precisely to let kids of this age (20+ weeks) be killed on request. (America made a judicial decision to this effect. China & North Korea are the only two bodies to have made a like political decision, but their choices can't be called "popular votes". Even Sweden protects unborn children after 18 weeks, and it is an outlier in Europe, with other nations stopping abortion at 12 weeks.) What gives? Is Albuquerque uniquely unhinged? Or is something still more ominous going on?

#### that Pope Francis interview in the Jesuit journal
Note that the same day the interview was released, Pope Francis uttered these awe-inspiring words: " Every unborn child, though condemned to be aborted, has the face of Jesus Christ, has the face of the Lord . . ."

Isn't it perhaps relevant that the Pope in that America magazine interview was  using words appropriate to reach out to fellow Jesuits, who are often quite liberal? My hope is that this fact explains some of his seemingly astonishing ignorance of the real Catholic world (e.g. suggesting that our homilies are in danger of being "obsessed" with contraception) and his apparently closed-minded and uncollaborative attitude toward significant portions of the faithful (e.g. saying that he had been "reprimanded" by some pro-lifers, rather than saying more neutrally"criticized" by them, and saying he had never been a "rightwinger," which is the language of the left)

#### The 2018 issue of Life & Learning is now available
The 2018 issue of Life & Learning is now available on the UFL website. This volume includes papers that were presented at the University Faculty for Life conference in June 1018 at the University of Dallas.  Here is the link.  The volume includes papers by Clarke Forsythe, Richard Myers, Gerard Wegemer, Richard Stith, Christopher Wolfe, Christopher James Wolfe, Mary Lemmons, Jeff Koloze, Bernadette Waterman Ward, Janet Smith, William Frank, and David Hershenov.

Many thanks to Father Joseph Koterski S.J. for his excellent work editing the volume.

 

#### The abstract of another pro-abortion law review article
The abstract of another pro-abortion law review article has been published on the SSRN Medical-Legal Studies ejournal. It is:

"Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective: Cases and Controversies - Introduction"   Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights Series, University of Pennsylvania Press, pages 1-10, 2014

REBECCA J. COOK, University of Toronto - Faculty of LawEmail: rebecca.cook@utoronto.ca JOANNA N. ERDMAN, Dalhousie University - Schulich School of LawEmail: Joanna.Erdman@Dal.Ca BERNARD DICKENS, University of Toronto - Faculty of LawEmail: bernard.dickens@utoronto.ca

As this introduction illustrates, Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective: Cases and Controversies offers a fresh look at significant transnational legal developments in recent years, examining key judicial decisions, constitutional texts, and regulatory reforms of abortion law in order to envision ways ahead.  While the United States and Western Europe may have been the vanguard of abortion law reform in the latter half of the twentieth century, Central and South America are proving to be laboratories of thought and innovation in the twenty-first century, as are particular countries in Africa and Asia. Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective offers a fresh look at significant transnational legal developments in recent years, examining key judicial decisions, constitutional texts, and regulatory reforms of abortion law in order to envision ways ahead.  The chapters summarized in this introduction investigate issues of access, rights, and justice, as well as social constructions of women, sexuality, and pregnancy, through different legal procedures and regimes. They address the promises and risks of using legal procedure to achieve reproductive justice from different national, regional, and international vantage points; how public and courtroom debates are framed within medical, religious, and human rights arguments; the meaning of different narratives that recur in abortion litigation and language; and how respect for women and prenatal life is expressed in various legal regimes. By exploring how legal actors advocate, regulate, and adjudicate the issue of abortion, this timely volume seeks to build on existing developments to bring about change of a larger order.

Posted 141001 by Lynn Wardle

 

#### The AMA and Assisted Suicide
The American Medical Association (AMA) has long opposed physician-assisted suicide. In 2016, the AMA began a process to reexamine the issue. A change in position could have far-reaching consequences because courts often rely on the views of medical societies in considering issues such as the constitutionality of laws banning assisted suicide.  In the summer of 2018, the issue was again referred to the AMA's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA). Alex Schadenberg's recent blog post explains that the CEJA has recently issued a report recommending that the AMA retain its opposition to physician-assisted suicide.  This is very good news.

#### The AMA and physician-assisted suicide
Here is a link to a good piece by Alex Schadenberg on the current debate within the AMA about physician-assisted suicide. He discusses a powerful op-ed by Dr. Thomas E. Sullivan who strongly supports retention of the AMA policy against physician-assisted suicide.

#### The Becket Fund to defend Catholic hospitals from pressure to perform abortions
On the Mirror of Justice blog, Rick Garnett has an interesting post on the Becket Fund's threat to sue HHS if it succumbs to pressure from the ACLU to push Catholic hospitals to perform abortions. See http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2010/08/the-becket-fund-stands-up-to-aclu-for-catholic-hospitals.html

Richard M.

#### The Canadian Supreme Court and Abortion
Canada's path to an unlimited legal right to abortion has  features which Americans may find of interest. A brief  account can be found in The National Post at http://www.nationalpost.com/news/five+judges+legalized+abortion/4997598/story.html

#### The Church, the UN, and American Foreign Policy talk at St. Thomas
The Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas is sponsoring a talk by Susan Yoshihara, director of research at the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, entitled "The Church, the UN, and American Foreign Policy."

Wednesday, April 16 at 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

University of St. Thomas
McNeely Hall, Room 100
2078 Grand Avenue
Saint Paul, MN

Tickets Available at eventbrite.com
"Recently a United Nations committee presumed to direct the Vatican to change canon law on abortion and other matters. Some countries have gone so far as to argue that United Nations should revoke its recognition of the Holy See as a Permanent Observer at the United Nations. Susan Yoshihara, director of research at the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, will discuss these attacks on the Church and its relevance to American politics. She received a Ph.D. in international relations from the Fletcher School, Tufts University and spent 20 years as a U.S. Navy helicopter pilot. Registration begins at 7 p.m. Lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. This event is cosponsored by the Catholic Defense League."
 

#### The Death of Roe v. Wade
That is the title of a recent Slate piece by Dahlia Lithwick. See http://www.slate.com/id/2291596/ The piece has to be read to be be believed. Lithwick complains that Roe is no longer a binding precedent, because opponents and supporters of abortion rights don't treat the case as the law of the land. The result she says is to make the right to abortion a practical unreality. She claims, for example, that for all practical purposes women can't get an abortion in Ohio, North Dakota, or Florida. But, in reality, there are still over a million abortions a year in this country. I live in Florida and there is an active abortion clinic just a couple of miles from my home. Lithwick is surely aware of all of this, despite the recent legislative measures that place very modest restrictions on abortion.

The piece is not a serious legal analysis. It seems mainly designed to rally the supporters of abortion rights. But the lack of seriousness is, I think, a good sign for the pro-life movement. Lithwick doesn't seem willing to be able to describe the facts with any semblance of truth. Her piece reveals an air of desperation--that the abortion rights movement is losing ground and that she can sense that the pro-life position is, as Charlie Rice stated a few years back, The Winning Side.  

Richard M.

#### The Disabled and the Right to Life
Here is a link to a recent story by Dr. Rebecca Oas reporting on the work of UN committees (including the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) supporting abortion on disabled children.

Such stories remind us of the critical work that groups such as Not Dead Yet perform in fighting for the rights of the disabled.

Here is a link to William Peace's blog, Bad Cripple. Peace is a Board member of Not Dead Yet who often writes in opposition to assisted suicide for the disabled. Here is an example of one such post from earlier this year.

Thanks to UFL stalwart Jeff Koloze for suggesting that we highlight the important work of William Peace.

#### The Ethics of Abortion, by Chris Kaczor
Christopher Kaczor has just published a new book entitled "The Ethics of Abortion: Women's Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice." http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Abortion-Question-Routledge-Bioethics/dp/0415884691

This is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it. In the book, Kaczor defends the pro-life position with clarity and philosophical depth. Nearly half of the book discusses the personhood question.  He also critically discusses the most recent defenses of abortion rights.

Richard M.

#### The Euthanasia Cancer Spreads"
Here is a link to a good piece by Wesley Smith documenting some of the disturbing trends concerning the legalization of euthanasia. Here is his conclusion:

"Resisting assisted suicide and euthanasia isn’t about “winning,” but saving lives. So regardless of how things ultimately turn out, those of us who understand that hastening death corrupts medicine and abandons the vulnerable have no choice but to continue resisting the toxic tide for as long as we can, understanding that caring rather than killing is the way to show true compassion to all suicidal people—regardless of the reasons they may have for wanting to die."

#### the fate of Nebraska's new abortion laws
Apparently, Nebraska's Attorney General has decided not to appeal an injunction issued against enforcement of a Nebraska law requiring health screenings for women seeking abortions. The AG believes that there is little prospect of successfully defending the law.

Nebraska's other new law banning abortions after 20 weeks based on the view that such a ban is necessary to avoid fetal pain is scheduled to take effect in October and will likely be challenged by abortions rights groups.

For the AP update, see http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ABORTION_LAWS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Richard M.

#### The Gospel of Life and the New Evangelization
In Rome at the Vatican this weekend the Holy See is presenting a "Day Celebrating Evangelium Vitae," Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical on life issues.  UFL board member Frank Beckwith is one of the presenters at a panel called "The Gospel of Life and the New Evangelization."  In an interview with Vatican Radio Beckwith describes his presentation:
"The case that I make," Beckwith says, "is that even those who are hostile to a culture of life, down deep, assume or rely on understandings of the human person that we can use to show them that ultimately their own view is incorrect."
Also presenting are Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura and Robert Royal, President of the Faith and Reason Institute and Graduate Dean at the Catholic Distance University.

#### The Growing Problem of Abortion As Birth Control for Women With Children
The Growing Problem of Abortion As Birth Control for Women With Children by Lynn Wardle (posted 111214)

An article posted in “Slate” on October 7, 2011, presents some telling statistics about abortion in the USA.  In “Most Surprising Abortion Statistic: The Majority of Women Who Terminate Pregnancies Are Already Mothers,” by Lauren Sandler, available at http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2011/10/most_surprising_abortion_statistic_the_majority_of_women_who_ter.html  , the author discusses a 2010 report by Rachel K. Jones, Lawrence B. Finer and Susheela Singh, “Characteristics of U.S. Abortion Patients,” published by the Alan Guttmacher Institute  at http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/US-Abortion-Patients.pdf , that was based on 2008 data.  It revealed that 61 percent of women who had an abortion that year already had at least one child; indeed, over one-third of them (34%) had two or more children. Sandler’s phone call to the National Abortion Federation revealed that their data shows that for the past three years (since the economic problems became a national issue in 2008) “a whopping 72 percent of NAF clients looking to terminate a pregnancy were already mothers, up at least 10 percent from the years before the economy crashed.”  (Emphasis added)

The astonishingly high percentages appear to be credible, at face value.  The Alan Guttmacher Institute has long reported the most accurate data about abortion (as far as it goes, more complete and reliable than CDC data), and the National Abortion Federation data appears to be comparable to it on this point, and, if anything, those organizations might have incentive to under-report rather than inflate this data because of the “stigma” of such abortions (a topic briefly discussed in the Slate article).

This reminded me of research I did in Japan and the USA in 1988 comparing the history of abortion practice and regulation in those two countries.  See Lynn D. Wardle, “Crying Stones”: A Comparison of Abortion in Japan and the United States, 14 N.Y.L. Sch. J. Int’l & Compar. L. 183 (1993).   Among the striking differences then was that best data indicated that about 70 percent of all abortions in Japan were performed on married women (who are likely to have had a child), whereas about 80 percent of all abortions in the USA were performed on single women.

While the percentage American women having abortions who are unmarried has  remained about the same (now 85% according to the 2010 Jones, Finer & Singh report cited above), the incidence of premarital sex among American women, including sex by nonmarital cohabitants, has dramatically increased in the past quarter-century, and the percentage of childbirths out of wedlock as skyrocketed (from 22% in 1985 to nearly 44% today), at least doubling the likelihood that women presenting for abortion have previously given birth to or have one or more children.

Historically, abortion was viewed as and reserved for situations of “tragic necessity” in Japan.  Four centuries ago, it was the abject poverty of the peasants and rigid hierarchical strictures of the commercial and samurai classes in Japan’s rigid feudal system that pushed the latter into abortion and the former into infanticide.  For most peasant families it was perceived to be a matter of either killing the newborn or starving the other existing family members.  Such desperation drives irrational and extreme actions.

In America, the land of opportunity, historically abortion has had a different origin and motivation.  It was expediency, to cover-up the unwanted consequences of secret behavior that, if not eliminated would reveal facts that would expose the parties to stigma.

The increase in rates of American women with children having abortions during the past three years suggests, however, that it is desperation that it driving (and distorting the judgment) of at least some women seeking abortion, and that, despite living in the free-est land of opportunity in the world, they view their economic plight and prospects as being very distressed.  That is a sad commentary on the general contemporary perception of quality of life and of the chances for economic improvement and upward mobility in the USA today.

The persistent practice of abortion-as-birth-control is also suggested by these statistics.  Most of these cases are are not “hard case” scenarios, but choices of expediency, convenience and personal preferences.  The use of abortion in that context is deeply disturbing and provides a sad commentary on the moral quality of life and the character of some American women (and those who influence them) in this generation.

Also distressing is the Slate article’s suggestion that abortion of the unexpected or unplanned unborn child is viewed by some mothers as morally justified because it may be beneficial for their other children.  One study found “that most mothers who abort say they are doing so to protect the kids they already have.”  Someday they will tell their living child (or children), “I loved you enough to kill another child of mine, an unborn child, so that you could have more affluence, more resources, and more opportunities.”  One wonders what the living child will have lost, been deprived of, because of living without the aborted sibling.  What will be the moral effect on the surviving child of mother’s deliberate killing of a living-but-unborn sibling to increase the survivor’s piece of the family resource pie?  Will the living child feel obliged to accept the principle that killing others to obtain more fiscal resources and opportunities for oneself or one’s loved ones is moral and just?  Will she believe that life is really a “Donner party” experience, or a “lifeboat” competition to survive (and beware if you fall asleep for your companions may see to it that you never wake up again) - not just for the most desperate and starving but for those whose plans for how they will climb the ladder of success may be disrupted or inconvenienced by unexpected burdens imposed by another human life?

 

#### The Kenyan Constitution and Abortion
On August 4th, Kenya will hold a referendum to approve a new constitution. While Kenya needs a new constitution to address serious political problems, pro-abortion advocacy groups have hijacked the reform process and managed to insert provisions in the draft constitution that will lay the foundation for abortion-on-demand in this pro-life country. It is likely that population control/abortion groups are targeting Kenya because it tends to be a leader in political and social trends in eastern Africa and throughout the rest of the continent. 

The Catholic bishops and other Christian leaders have been fighting for months to have the abortion provisions removed, without success. (The Muslims are not supporting them because the draft constitution establishes Islamic courts, which they obviously want.) The Churches now have no option but to urge the Kenyan people to oppose the approval of the draft constitution. Humanly speaking, they are fighting a losing battle - the Obama Administration is pouring over $23 million of our taxpayer dollars into advocating for the draft constitution (in violation of US law which prohibits the use of federal monies to lobby for or against abortion), Planned Parenthood Federation of America and other abortion groups are contributing to misleading "civic education" campaigns, and the Kenya media is grossly distorting and maligning the Churches' message.
 However, the churches are placing their faith in God's power to defeat this draft constitution and force the government leaders to set forth a revised constitution without the abortion provisions. Despite significant political pressure and some very nasty opposition (several people were killed a few weeks ago when a bomb exploded at a prayer rally being held by the "no" campaign), the bishops and many faithful Christians are devoting all their time and energy to this cause.

A Kenyan bishop has asked  that we spread the word for the need for urgent prayer.  This is a powerful way for us to help our brothers and sisters in Kenya, and also to counter the evil use of taxpayer monies.

For more details, here is a link:  http://lifenews.com/int1597.html
 

 
 

 

 

#### The latest on "brain death"
My post a few months back also mentioned a NCBQ piece on diagnosing death using neurological criteria. The Autumn issue includes a review of what sounds like an interesting and relevant book. Jason T. Eberl reviews Russell DiSilvestro's Human Capacities and Moral Status (NCBQ 11 [2011]: 596-98). According to the review, DiSilvestro departs from the Aristotelian (and, I'd add, Thomistic) understanding that a living human body needs to have an active capacity for participation in the rational life of the human soul. DiSilvestro thinks that it is sufficient that an entity have a merely passive capacity for such participation in order to be a living human body (and, hence, a human person). Like Eberl, I'm skeptical. But I need to give this book a read one of these months.

Along related lines, the Summer 2011 Communio includes a pair of articles on "brain death": Nicholas Tonti-Filippini, "You Only Die Twice: Augustine, Aquinas, The Council of Vienne, and Death by the Brain Criterion," Communio 38 (2011): 308-25; and Robert Spaemann, "Is Brain Death the Death of a Human Person?" Communio 38 (2011): 326-40. Tonti-Fillipini argues that "brain death" is death. In particular, he writes: "I do not think that [Alan] Shewmon has been rigorous enough in what he considers to be [bodily] integration." His explanation is helpful, I would say. I think that the problem with Shewmon's view (shared by many others) could be indicated even more strongly by reference to the importance of final cause (rationality) rather than simply material/efficient cause in true 'integration.' (I think that though Shewmon has sometimes said that those who think "brain death" is death are being Cartesians, it is really Shewmon who is being Cartesian rather than Aristotelian/Thomist.) Spaemann argues that brain death isn't death - relying heavily on Shewmon and others. Obviously, I don't think his argument works.

#### The latest on natural-law theory and unborn human life
In a past post, I mentioned the dialogue between philosopher Fr. Martin Rhonheimer and his critics - or, perhaps one should say, one of the dialogues, or one aspect of the dialogue - namely, that concerning his 'vital conflicts' theory. In the Autumn 2011 issue of the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, there is more, dealing with both the theory itself and its (and also Germain Grisez's theory's) possible application to the recent case of an abortion in a Catholic hospital in Phoenix. See Thomas A. Cavanaugh, "Double-Effect Reasoning, Craniotomy, and Vital Conflicts: A Case of Contemporary Catholic Casuistry," NCBQ 11 (2011): 453-63; Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, "Abortion in a Case of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: A Test Case for Two Rival Theories of Human Action," NCBQ 11 (2011): 503-18; Martin Rhonheimer, "Vital Conflicts, Direct Killing, and Justice: A Response to Rev. Benedict Guevin and Other Critics," NCBQ 11 (2011): 519-40.

There's more than a bit in Rhonheimer's work that I like. With regard to action theory, I largely agree with him (and with Grisez - and with others who aren't followers of either, like Christopher Kaczor) that the 'object' of a human action needs to be defined more narrowly than it has tended to be in the neo-Thomistic account. With regard to natural-law theory, I tend to agree with him (against both Grisez and the neo-Thomists) regarding the central importance of virtue (e.g., justice) in questions of how one person should treat another. But I'm simply not convinced by Rhonheimer's claim that the action he proposes in cases of 'vital conflict' is not unjust. I think that he is too focused on consequences in his account of justice.

#### The legalization of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide is a sideshow in  end-of-life care
Here is a good piece by Paul Russell discussing an article by Ezekiel Emanuel. Emanuel's article notes that "legalising euthanasia and [physician assisted suicide] is really a side-show in end-of-life care--championed by the few, extensively covered by the media, but not targeted to improve the care for most dying patients who still suffer."

#### The Literature of Mo Yan, Nobel Laureate
Mo Yan, who is to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, has been a strong critic of China's one child policy. Jeff Koloze wrote a careful analysis of "Explosions," one of her short stories.

"This paper reviews demographic considerations of abortion and the one-child policy in the People's Republic of China which form the basis for contemporary literary works which concern abortion. After a brief discussion of other fictional works, the paper focuses on abortion passages in the short story 'Explosions' (1985) by Mo Yan. The literature is reviewed using formalist explication and aspects of reception theory."

The entire text is available here on lifeissues.net.

#### The Medical Case Against Late Term Abortions
Public Discourse has a great article, Cuomo's Women's Equality Act Will Harm Women, outlining the evidence that late-term abortions are never medically indicated.  Quoting from Congressional testimony and reports of maternal-fetal specialists, the authors make a compelling case that women suffering from serious medical conditions during the last half of pregnancy are better served by induced delivery than abortion.

#### The Morality of Undercover Prolife Work
Janet Smith gave a great plenary address at this years UFL Conference on the question of whether it is morally permissible to lie to abortion clinic workers to obtain the truth about their practices.  She notes at the outset that both St. Thomas and St. Augustine believed that all lies are immoral, but in some circumstances are venial sins.  She questions these conclusions, asking whether these saints have adequately taken into account the fallen nature of this world.  For a good introduction to the debate over lying to get the truth about abortion clinics, look at her First Things essay, Why Tollefsen and Pruss are Wrong about Lying.

#### The Neuhaus Colloquium on the Obama Administration and human embryos
Here is a link to the Neuhaus Colloquium's statement on the Obama Administration and the treatment of human embryos. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/09/1591

The statement is the effort of a group of scientists and intellectuals who were inspired by the life and example of the late Father Richard John Neuhaus.

Richard M.

#### the new abortion providers
The July 18, 2010 New York Times Sunday Magazine has a long article by Emily Bazelon entitled "The New Abortion Providers." See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/magazine/18abortion-t.html

The article describes the efforts of abortion rights supporters to bring abortion from the fringes of medical practice into the mainstream of medicine. The effort, with generous funding from the Buffett Foundation, seems to be having some success.

But there are some lingering doubts. The article notes these doctors are surprised by the increasing pro-life sentiment. And the doctors seem troubled by abortions beyond the earliest stages. Limiting their abortion practice to the earliest stages  means, one doctor explained, that no one has to deal with recognizable fetal parts.

The reality that abortion involves the taking of an innocent human life is apparently not something that these doctors want to confront.  

Michael New's commentary on the NY Times article is well worth reading. http://www.lifenews.com/nat6558.html  

Richard M.

#### The nomination of Elena Kagan
President Obama has nominated Elena Kagan to replace John Paul Stevens on the United States Supreme Court. If confirmed, Kagan will not likely change the balance of the Court on the issue of abortion. Justice Stevens was a strong defender of Roe v. Wade and there is little reason to think that Kagan will depart from this position. For commentary on the Kagan nomination, see the Scotus blog. at www.scotusblog.com. The National Right to Life Committee's website has some analysis of Kagan's likely impact on the abortion issue.  http://www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/May10/nv051110part2.html

Richard M.

#### The Obama Admin, contraception, and conscience
Rather belatedly adding my first post to the UFL blog, and following up on Richard Myers's post just below, here are a couple of good recent pieces by Prof. Helen Alvaré - formerly of the USCCB, now of George Mason Univ. School of Law - regarding the Administration's decision to require health insurers to cover contraception with no copay:

	"Contracepting Conscience"
	"What Would Orwell Say?"

I think that the decision matters to us pro-lifers not only because we too are concerned about conscience - though of course we are - but also because of what I've termed "The Incompatibility of Contraception with Respect for Life" (I wrote this paper some years ago now, and if I were rewriting it today I'd modify a few things, but I still think that my analysis is basically correct). (I'm interested in thinking about abortion not only in itself but also in its interrelationships with other phenomena in sexual/family, scientific/medical, cultural, economic, and political life; I hope I'm not inclined to see nonexistent connections.)

#### The Obama Administration and conscience protection
Here is a good piece by John Garvey (President of Catholic U) on the Obama Administration's recent threat to conscience rights. 

LifeNews has two stories on the same issue: Groups: Obama Admin Decision Violates Catholic Conscience Rights and

#### The Obama Administration is working to rescind conscience regulations
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the Obama Administration's efforts to rescind the conscience regulations issued in the waning days of the Bush Administration. http://www.lifenews.com/2010/12/14/nat-6929/

This action wouldn't change existing federal statutes that protect conscience rights but the Bush regulations were an important move in helping to implement the federal statutory protections. The rescission of the Bush regulations would not be a welcome development. 

Richard M.

#### The Pro-Life Spring in America
14 June 2011The New York Times recently carried a lengthy article by Emily Bazelon entitled "The Reincarnation of Pro-Life," N.Y. Times May 27, 2011.  It is available at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/magazine/the-reincarnation-of-pro-life.html?_r=1  .  While a bit sensational  in parts (just a hint of "To the ramparts!  The barbaric hordes are coming!") much of it is quite encouraging.  Two brief excerpts:  "At least 64 new anti-abortion laws have passed, with more than 30 of them in April alone." Id.  "Americans United for Life. Her group offers state lawmakers 32 pieces  of model legislation, and its approach is to chip away at the  protections of Roe v. Wade rather than challenge it outright. Taken  together, these new state laws are hugely effective — incrementalism on  steroids." Id. -LDW

#### The Rape Exception
“On Abortion and Defining a ‘Person’” by Notre Dame Professor Gary Gutting is a provocative discussion of the implications of the recent defeat of Mississippi’s personhood amendment “for the logic of the abortion debate.”  Although most of the essay focuses on what the measure’s defeat reveals about people’s attitude toward the personhood of a fertilized egg, Gutting also gives a powerful critique of the rape exception.  He says it is “obviously wrong to kill a newborn on the grounds that it was conceived through rape or incest.”  If “the fetus before birth has the same moral standing as the newborn,” allowing fetuses to be killed under circumstances not permitted for newborns contradicts “the basic claim that there is a human person present from the time of fertilization through the birth of the baby.”

Gutting posits what appears to be an inescapable dilemma for the pro-lifer who accepts the rape exception—to support the exception is to undermine the normative basis of one’s pro-life position.  But is there perhaps a way out?  Might not a rape exception proponent admit that aborting a fetus conceived via rape does in fact kill a human person, but argue that the rape exception is nonetheless essential?  The rape exception enjoys such widespread support that no meaningful restrictions on abortion could likely pass without it.  (I assume for purposes of argument that such limitations would be constitutionally permissible.)  Since non-rape related abortions vastly outnumber those due to rape, isn’t it better to sacrifice a few to save the many?  This argument has a certain utilitarian appeal, and it does, I submit, refute Gutting’s point that a rape exception is necessarily incompatible with the pro-life view of fetal personhood.  The problem, of course, is that this consistency comes at a steep cost.  To defend the rape exception in this way requires one to acknowledge that sometimes some persons must die so that others might live.  Isn’t this in essence a pro-choice approach?

#### The Right Reason for Not Funding Planned Parenthood.
The best reason not to fund Planned Parenthood is never mentioned in the newspapers. (Could it also have been overlooked in the briefs?)

Numerous undercover investigations have shown that Planned Parenthood prefers money to the interests of women. But even without that evidence, it would be unwise to entrust pregnancy prevention and pregnancy counseling to Planned Parenthood as long as it is profiting from abortion. No organization that is supposed to prevent pregnancy, or counsel pregnant clients on their options, should be making money from a particular post-pregnancy outcome, i.e. abortion. Fair and neutral pregnancy prevention and counseling will be much more likely with organizations or agencies that do not have such a built-in conflict of interest. (German constitutional law, for example, requires the separation of abortion counseling from abortion provision, and South Dakota has wisely moved in this direction recently.)

The above rationale should easily withstand both constitutional and regulatory challenges, for it focuses solely on benefits to clients, not on the pros or cons of abortion.

#### The Scholarly Achievement Award
The University Faculty for Life Scholarly Achievement Award in Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research has encouraged students since 2004 to submit their best academic work for the cause of life.  The five essays and literary contributions received in the Creative Writing and Research categories total 24,054 mellifluous words, 94 lugubrious footnotes, and 773 scholarly bibliographic entries—figures almost equaling last year’s contributions.

The judges for the context were Dr. Jeff Koloze of Koloze Consultants and Walsh University, Dr. Sandra Coyle, in the English Department at Jacksonville University, and Dr. Clara Sarrocco of the Institute of Religious Studies.  Please know that the judges greatly appreciate that you, the faculty, took time from your schedules to promote the contest and to encourage your students to submit their best work.  Thank you!

Of the five entries, four were awarded honorable mentions.  In the Creative Writing category, honorable mentions go to:

	Allie Dawson, a Philosophy and Literature student at Ave Maria University, for her short story “Her Actions Are His Dreams”

and

	Anna Robinson, a student at Immaculata University, for her poem “The Joy of Love”

In the Research category, honorable mentions go to:

	Jess Adkins, a PhD student in the Philosophy program at St. Louis University, for her essay “Robbed of Life: A Thomistic Position on Terminal Sedation”

and

	Kathryn Harvey, who graduated with an MA in Religious Studies from Cardinal Stritch University, for her essay “Matters of Life and Death: A Roman Catholic Perspective on Physician Assisted Suicide”

Finally, the winner of this year’s University Faculty for Life Scholarly Achievement Award in the Research category is

	Isaac Longworth, a student at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, for his essay “The Societal Impact of Victim Photography”

Here is an excerpt from his essay:
[W]e cannot shy away from exposing the full horror of abortion by use of pictures, merely because it might shock or offend people.  In fact, the very nature of aborted victim imagery should evoke feelings of shock, sorrow, and outrage because abortion itself is shocking, sorrowful, and outrageous.  These are natural emotions a person should feel when faced with visual evidence of the brutal slaughter of the youngest of our kind.  Use of these images will no doubt draw ire from pro-abortion individuals and groups, but, if the pro-life movement is not making the pro-abortion movement nervous and angry, then perhaps it is not doing its job well enough.  The pro-abortion movement fears images of aborted children, because these images show two things at the same time, namely: the humanity of the preborn child, and the inhumanity of abortion.
The University Faculty for Life Essay Contest is a significant way that pro-life students can be challenged to build their publication portfolios, to be recognized by pro-life academics for their work, and, most importantly, to exercise their talents to advance the cause of life.  This year’s entries continue to demonstrate that students are willing to use their talents for life-affirming purposes with encouragement from you, their faculty.  With your cooperation, let us hope that next year’s contest will inspire students to submit even more challenging work.

[Thanks to Jeff Koloze for this report. Ed.]

#### The Supreme Court and Louisiana's admitting privileges law
In June Medical Services, LLC v. Gee, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of Louisiana's law requiring that abortion providers have admitting privileges at local hospitals. In so doing, the court distinguished the US Supreme Court's 2016 decision in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, which involved a similar Texas law.

The plaintiffs have asked the US Supreme Court to stay the ruling of the Fifth Circuit and block the enforcement of the Louisiana law. The Supreme Court will soon, perhaps on Thursday February 7, rule on the plaintiffs' application for a stay. The Court's ruling on the application for a stay could be tremendously important for the future of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Here is a link  to a good piece by David French exploring the implications.

 

#### The theology of the body and reverence for life
UFL member Janet E. Smith has written an article for Our Sunday Visitor that highlights the connection between the theology of the body, sexuality and marriage, and reverence for new life. Our bodies, which are a gift from God, reveal that we are to be committed lovers who treasure new life God loves love; he loves marriage; he loves babies.

#### The UN and abortion
Here is a link to a good essay by Stefano Gennarini entitled "Abortion: The Original Sin of the United Nations' Human Rights Project." Gennarini notes that international human rights system is now promoting abortion under the guise of protecting sexual and reproductive health. He states: "Sadly, the indifference of the multilateral system to the lives of the unborn is not a mere accident of history. It is a flaw built into the human rights project itself. Indifference to human life in the prenatal phase is the original sin of the multilateral system, as it were, enshrined in its constituent agreements and diligently propagated throughout its institutions." 

He urges pro-life groups to make it a priority to resist the effort to protect abortion through the international human rights system. He concludes: "The pro-life movement must make the issue of abortion a political one, not just in the United States, but around the world. What happens in the dark rooms of Turtle Bay and the long corridors of Foggy Bottom has to be connected to voters. So long as debates about abortion and international policy are taking place behind closed doors and through inscrutable euphemisms, the pro-life movement does not stand a chance."

#### The Unborn Paradox
Here is a link to Ross Douthat's recent (January 2, 2011) column with the above title in the New York Times.   

Here is his conclusion: "This is the paradox of America’s unborn. No life is so desperately sought after, so hungrily desired, so carefully nurtured. And yet no life is so legally unprotected, and so frequently destroyed."

Richard M.

#### The US ought to ban sex-selection abortions
Here's a good piece by Rebecca Taylor calling for the US to ban sex-selection abortions. Here is the conclusion of the article:

"And it is time for sex selection in the U.S. to end. At the minimum we need federal legislation like PRENDA that would make aborting a fetus based on gender a crime. And like other countries around the world we should also prohibit the use of IVF and PGD solely to have a child of a certain gender. Both would go along way to say that, in the United States, we value all life, not just lives with the “right” gender."

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/04/24/u-s-must-join-other-nations-banning-sex-selection-abortion/

Richard M.

#### Three by Silecchia
UFL member Lucia A. Silecchia has three recent publications:

In “The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Reflections on Four Flaws that Tarnish its Promise,” Silecchia  critiques, among other things, the way in which the Convention fails to protect the dignity of all human life. Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2013.

In the first of two articles for a general audience, "Opening Doors to Life," Silecchia comments on the high rate of abortion for infants with a prenatal diagnosis of a disability. National Review On-Line, Dec. 4, 2013.

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal,  "Peter Stuyvesant vs. the Quakers: How a revolt in Dutch New York planted the seeds for the right to religious free expression," Silecchia comments on religious liberty with the hopes that it highlights parallels to today’s debates on the same issue. The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 10, 2014, A11.

#### Three Ted Talks on Fetal Development that Help Build the Prolife Case
Most academics are aware of TED talks - a global initiative to make short (18 minutes or less) speeches on important and interesting topics available for free via the worldwide web.   This can be a great resource for academics who want to introduce videos into their teaching.  Annie Murphy Paul: What we learn before we're born , Tyrone Hayes + Penelope Jagessar Chaffer: The toxic baby?  and Alexander Tsiaras: Conception to birth -- visualized.  I have used the last video by Alexander Tsiaras often and with great effect to help make the case that the unborn child is fully human.

#### Time article on premature viability study
Time Magazine ran an article discussing the possible impact of a study in the New England Journal of Medicine on the viability of premature babies which showed that a small percentage of babies born at 22 weeks could survive if given the proper treatment."How a New Study on Premature Babies Could Influence the Abortion Debate," by Eliza Gray.

HT Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas (MN.).

#### Time Magazine and abortion
According to LifeNews.com, Time is running a cover story about the long defeat for pro-abortion advocates. They even include an article by pro-life advocate Emily Buchanan of the Susan B. Anthony List.  I haven't read the issue, but it is interesting that Time is acknowledging the decline in support for unrestricted abortion. I also wonder, though, in light of the controversies during the recent campaign and the post-election hand-wringing by some Republicans about the negative impact of "social conservatives" on the outcome, whether America is becoming robustly pro-life.  Also, many abortions today are accomplished using pills, rather than surgical instruments. Many Americans who are squeamish about clinics may not have the same squeamishness about abortifacient morning-after pills, esp. in the "hard" cases.

#### Time magazine cover story on the first 9 months of life
I thought the recent Time magazine cover story on "How the first nine months shape the rest of your life" http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2020815,00.html was quite interesting.

I don't know anything about the field of fetal origins discussed in the article. I was struck, though, by the  assumption that the life of a human being begins ninth months prior to birth. There is no effort to focus on implantation or viabilty or some other point in development. That seems to be the case when the issue isn't abortion. I remember looking at the Our Bodies Our Selves book years ago and the book is straightforward about a pregnant woman and her developing baby, except in the sections of the book dealing with abortion. People seem to easily grasp the underlying reality of when life begins, except when they have some reason not to respect the right to life.

Richard M.

#### Tom Cavanaugh on the Hippocratic Oath and Assisted Suicide
Here is a link to an excellent essay in Public Discourse by Tom Cavanaugh. The title of the essay is "Why the Hippocratic Oath Prohibits Physician-Assisted Suicide."   Here is a brief excerpt:

"By respecting this venerable boundary [between killing and healing], physicians can resist society’s chronic tendency to conflate the roles of healer and wounder. Moreover, by rejecting PAS, doctors ensure both that death will not become a therapy for grim diseases more generally, and that today’s PAS will not become tomorrow’s euthanasia. This honorable “No” to giving a deadly drug permits many “Yeses” to therapeutic progress and shields vulnerable others. Finally, doctors would do wisely to avoid the temptation to medicalize mortality by answering questions outside their competence...."

#### Tom Molony on "Roe, Chief Justice Roberts, and Stare Decisis"
Here is a link to an excellent article by Tom Molony. The article, which was recently published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, is entitled "Taking Another Look at the Call on the Field: Roe, Chief Justice Roberts, and Stare Decisis."

The article "examines Chief Justice Roberts's approach to stare decisis, attempting to identify matters that could prove important to him in evaluating Roe, but without offering a prediction about how he would vote in a case challenging the decision."

The article is especially timely after the recent June Medical decision, in which the Chief Justice relied on stare decisis in invalidating Louisiana's admitting privileges law. June Medical did not, of course, raise the issue of the continuing validity of Roe and Casey.

#### Transfer of copyright agreements
A colleague has been asked to submit a paper to the US-China Education Review.  A stipulation of the editor is that a “transfer of copyright agreement” should accompany the article.  If anyone has experience with such agreements, please contact me at JeffKolozePhD@sbcglobal.net; I will forward your comments as appropriate.

#### tributes to Dr. Willke
Here are a couple of other tributes to Dr. Jack Willke.

"Jack Willke, Witneess for Life," by Chuck Donovan in First Things.

"Father of the pro-life movement Jack Willke died on Friday," on LifeSiteNews.com

#### tributes to Nat Hentoff
Here, here, and here are links to tributes to Nat Hentoff, who died on Saturday January 7, 2017 at the age of 91. Hentoff described himself as “a Jewish, atheist, civil libertarian, left-wing pro-lifer.”

Wesley Smith once commented that "Hentoff’s advocacy cuts a wide swath across what are often called ‘the life issues.’ Indeed, his unyielding stand over many years against abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, unethical human medical experimentation, and the ongoing bioethical construction of a “duty to die” has made him a moral beacon for those who believe that universal human liberty depends on society’s embrace of the intrinsic equality of all human life."

#### Tristam Engelhardt on Moral Pluralism in Bioethics
The Journal of Medicine & Philosophy has a new article,

#### Trump Administration Continues Efforts to Defund Planned Parenthood
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the latest developments in this continuing saga. Here is a link to a short piece by Ed Whelan on the continuing legal battles.

#### Trump Administration to defund UNFPA
Here and here are links (from LifeNews and the National Right to Life News) to stories about the Trump Administration's plans to defund The United Nations Population Fund, which has been complicit in China's forced population control activities for many years. In explaining the decision, the US State Department stated:“This determination was made based on the fact that China’s family planning policies still involve the use of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization, and UNFPA partners on family planning activities with the Chinese government agency responsible for these coercive policies.”

#### Trump Selects Kavanaugh to replace Kennedy
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. If confirmed, Kavanaugh will likely tip the balance of the Court on many contentious issues, including abortion.

#### Two abortion regulations go to US Supreme Court Conference
On June 20, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether to hear two abortion cases coming out of Oklahoma.  The Oklahoma legislature has long been a leader in prolife legislation.  The main opponent of abortion regulation and legislation in the state is a Tulsa abortion clinic, Reproductive Service, which is part of the larger abortion company, Nova Health Systems, based in Texas.

In the first case, Oklahoma has a law requiring a pre-abortion ultrasound that is displayed and explained to the woman prior to the performance of any abortion.  This law has been challenged in a case captioned, Nova Health Systems, et al., v. Scott Pruitt, et all.  The state trial court struck down the law, stating that it violated the state constitution by requiring a procedure prior to abortion that is not required before all other medical procedures.  The Oklahoma Supreme Court affirmed on the basis that the ultrasound requirement violated the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.  The Oklahoma Attorney General has asked the US Supreme Court to hear the case, and reverse on the basis that ultrasound requirements are constitutional.

Oklahoma also has a law requiring any medical abortion utilize the protocol used when RU-486 was approved by the FDA. In Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice v. Cline,  Nova Health Systems, along with the Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice, sued claiming that abortion providers should be able to administer RU-486 in other ways.  The Oklahoma trial court created an implied right to abortion in the Oklahoma Constitution, and struck down the law as a burden on the newly created "right." The Oklahoma Supreme Court affirmed the trial court on the basis that the law violated the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.  The Oklahoma Attorney General has asked the US Supreme Court to hear the case, and reverse.

Keep your fingers crossed that the Supreme Court takes the cases.

#### Two brain-death cases
There have been two medical cases recently which involved the diagnosed brain-death of a patient.

The first case is that of Jahi McMath, the 13-year old California girl who was declared brain dead by the doctors and then was handed over to her family for care. As this article in the National Catholic Register details, the case has intensified an ongoing vigorous debate especially among Catholic moral theologians about the validity of brain death as a criterion for determining with moral certainty whether a person is dead, especially in light of Pope John Paul II's statements supporting the criterion. The article features the positions of UFL member Dr. Paul Byrne and Wesley Smith, of the Discovery Institute, who take different sides on the adequacy of brain death. It also includes input by Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo's brother, UFL member Fr. Michael Orsi, of Ave Maria University, Dr. Daniel Sulmasy of the University of Chicago and Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, MO.

The second case involving the diagnosed brain death of a patient has a direct bearing on our society's understanding of the status of the unborn. In this case, a pregnant Fort Worth woman, Marlise Muñoz, was declared brain dead. Her family wanted her taken off life support in accordance with her own instruction. The hospital refused because of a Texas law that required them to wait until the baby is viable so it might survive.  UFL member E. Christian Brugger discusses the details of this case in this National Catholic Register article. Brugger points out that in a society where the unborn baby was considered fully human and fully alive, this would not be a controversial case--the woman would be kept on support until the baby could be delivered. In our society, where the status of the unborn is not fully accepted, the case appears to be about the autonomy of the woman to make medical decisions in light of an unjust law, as can be seen in this NYT article: the woman could have chosen an abortion at the same point, so why not state in advance she doesn't want to be kept on supprt, even if it means the death of the baby?

#### Two Canadian Challenges to Assisted Suicide Prohibition
The Farewell Foundation for the Right to Die has filed suit challenging the Registrar of Corporations denial of the organization's application to incorporate.  The Registrar denied the application on the basis that organizing to assist those who seek to commit suicide is not a legally permissible purpose.  The petition in the law suit is available here. 

Motions in the case are scheduled to be heard by the British Columbia Supreme Court on August 2 & 3, 2011. On the first day, lawyers will argue whether to proceed on the basis of Farewell’s appeal against the BC Registrar decision to deny incorporation to Farewell Foundation, or the civil claim against the Attorney General of Canada.
 
On the second day the Attorney General of Canada will argue its motion on Farewell’s standing to challenge s.241(b) of the Criminal Code.  Farewell Foundation will argue that its founding directors have a direct interest in s.241(b) by virtue of the BC Registry decision to deny incorporation, that the Foundation’s purposes are to assist members to end their lives, and that certain members of the Foundation are diagnosed with conditions that are expected to lead to intolerable pain and suffering and they wish the option of ending their lives with assistance.

In April, 2011 the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association filed Lee Carter, et al. v. Attorney General,  a separate attack on the law prohibiting assisted suicide.  A copy of the amended notice of claim in that case can be found here. Additional information about the case can be found here.

Both the Farewell Foundation and the BCCLA cases seek to overturn Rodriguez v. British Columbia, 3 SCR 517 (1993), a Canadian Supreme Court case upholding the government's ability to outlaw assisted suicide.  A copy of the opinion can be found here.

#### Two good editorials opposing Colorado proposal to legalize "aid-in-dying"
In the National Right to Life News, Dave Andrusko reports on two recent editorials opposing Proposition 106.  Here's the conclusion of one of the editorials:

“Death with Dignity” sounds like compassion. Evil is often disguised as good. Few among us want dying patients to suffer needlessly against their will. This ill-conceived proposal is not the answer. It stands to do far more harm than good.

Vote no on Proposition 106, a dangerous idea that can only endanger vulnerable patients and exacerbate Colorado’s suicide crisis.

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2016/10/proposition-106a-dangerous-idea-that-can-only-endanger-vulnerable-patients-and-exacerbate-colorados-suicide-crisis/#.WAYrY0nrvIU

#### Two Universities struggle with abortion-related issues
Two Catholic universities are in the news with abortion-related stories.

Santa Clara University is going through a struggle between the President and faculty members over the availability of abortion through the University's health plan. President Michael Engh, S.J., recently initiated an action that would bar the availability of elective abortion through the health plan. In response, the faculty senate voted to "invalidate" the president's actions. See this National Catholic Register article for more details.

The University of Notre Dame recently announced to its faculty that a third-party administrator of their health plan would make available free access to contraceptives, some of which may have abortifacient effects. This came after a federal district court denied the University's request for a temporary injunction because of a pending law suit that Notre Dame has filed against the HHS mandate. The mandate would require the university to give coverage for contraception. See this National Catholic Register article for more details, including faculty reaction.

#### U.S. Teen Pregnancies, Births and Abortions Decline
A recent report by the Guttmacher Institute shows that pregnancy, birth and abortion rates of U.S. teenage women (ages 15-19) have declined significantly in the past two decades.  U.S. teen pregnancy rates reach historic lows, available at http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2014/05/05/index.html (viewed 9 May 2014).

 

The greatest, sharpest most profound drops have been in teen pregnancies and abortions.  Teen pregnancy rates fell in half, from nearly 117 per 1,000 U.S. women ages 15-19 in 1990 to under 58 per 1000 in 2010.  Still, nearly six percent (6%) of all U.S. teen women ages 15-19 became pregnant in 2010 (numbering roughly 625,000 teen women that year).

 

Likewise, the abortion rate has fallen dramatically -- by nearly two-thirds -- from 43.5 per 1,000 teen women in 1988 to less than 15 per 1000 teen women in 2010.  There are wide variations among racial and ethnic groups.  The states with the lowest teen abortion rates were South Dakota, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, Kentucky, and North Dakota (all 4-6%).  On the other hand, more than half of teenage pregnancies in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut ended in abortion.

 

The full report Kathrun Kost & Stanley Henshaw, U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births and Abortions, 2010: National and State Trends by Age, Race and Ethnicity (Guttmacher Insti. May 2014) is available at http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/USTPtrends10.pdf (viewed 9 May 2014).

 

While Guttmacher is quick to claim the increased availability of birth control pills and devices is behind the trends, it is not unlikely that the spread and acceptance of pro-life values also has influenced these trends.  Perhaps the rising generation is manifesting more responsible behaviors than earlier generations due in part to growing understanding of the facts of pre-natal human life and death (abortion). The pro-life community deserves great credit for promoting high ethical values and responsible pro-life behaviors.

 

Lynn D. Wardle

9 May 2014

#### UFL blog is now live
We are happy to announce that the UFL blog is now live.  We anticipate that members of the UFL Board will begin making regular posts.  Please direct comments to me at koterski@fordham.edu.  -- Fr Joe Koterski SJ (UFL Secretary)

#### UFL Conference a success!
Helen Alvaré

This past weekend UFL held its annual Life and Learning Conference on the beautiful, rose-bedecked campus of Fordham University in the Bronx. The meeting featured a combination of keynote speakers, break-out sessions, and awards banquets. Among the highlights was the presentation of the annual Smith Award to Helen Alvaré, Professor of Law at George Mason University and long-time pro-life spokesperson and activist.

In her acceptance speech, Alvaré discussed strategies for effectively communicating a pro-life, pro-family message in cultural context that may not respond to arguments that appeal to the welfare of the child, the mother, or the poor. Among her proposals is to clearly articulate and compare and contrast the different anthropologies of those who reject the traditional understandings of life and sexuality and those who support them.

She also talked about the importance of showing young people in a hook-up culture how a traditional approach to sexuality helps make families into communities of love that contribute to human flourishing.

In the next few days I will post other highlights from the meeting, including the plenary talks by Sr. Agnes Donovan, SV, of the Sisters for Life, and Erika Bachiochi attorney and  author of books on feminism and life and sexuality issues.

#### UFL Conference Call for Papers
The UFL Annual Conference "Life and Learning XXIII" will be held at the University of San Francisco May 31-June 1.  More information, registration and hotel information are available on the UFL web page.

There is still time to submit a proposal for a paper to be presented at the Conference.

Papers should focus on the life issues of abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. Themes for the conference include the legal, political, social, economic, and medical implications of these topics; relevant legal, philosophical and theological issues; the physical and psychological effects of abortion; and insights from history, literature, the arts, humanities and other disciplines. Paper proposals should be one page (maximum) and should including the working title of the proposed paper, author’s name, affiliation, full contact information (including address, phone, fax and email), and a brief abstract or outline. The deadline for receipt of proposals is April 7, 2013. All papers presented at the conference may be submitted after the conference for possible publication in Life and Learning, an annual peer-reviewed selection of conference papers.

To propose a paper, send the proposal (preferably by email attachment) by April 7, 2013 to:

Professor Barbara Freres
Department of Philosophy
Cardinal Stritch University
6801 N. Yates Road
Milwaukee WI 53217
tel: 414-410-4844

 

#### UFL Conference details, June 6-7
More details about the 2014 Life and Learning Conference are now available on the UFL Conference web page. Resides registration and housing information, you will find a detailed schedule and information about transportation.

Registration begins at 12:00 p.m. on Friday. The conference runs through the Saturday evening banquet. Note that the Smith award will be given to Helen Alvaré on Friday night, rather than at the Saturday banquet, as has been done in the past.

#### UFL in the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars proceedings
I just received in the mail the proceedings from the 2013 convention of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, Freedom and the Moral Law, held in Philadelphica, PA.  It contained pieces by three UFL members: "HHS Mandate Litigation: A Supreme Court Showdown in the Making," by William Saunders; "Exploring the Christological Nexus between the Ascetical Life and the Moral Life," by Rev. Thomas V. Berg; and "Veritatis Splendor: A Prototype of Renewed Moral Theology," by Rev. John J. Conley, S.J.

#### UFL Member Blogs
In the next ProVita Newsletter, which is scheduled to come out in April, I would like to include a list of blogs that members contribute to. This can be either a personal blog or an institutional one.  If you have a blog or know of a ufl member who contributes to one, e-mail me with the details at provitanews@yahoo.com Thanks.

#### UFL ProVita Newsletter: a request
The next issues of the ProVita Newsletter will be coming out next week. There is still time to contribute to the newsletter.

I am especially looking for:

	links or citations of significant research, whether it be from a pro-life perspective, neutral, or even hostile.
	a historian to write a brief (500 word) column about the place of the academic discipline of History in support of an academic culture of life.
	links to blogs by a UFL member or other pro-life scholars.

Please e-mail me at provitanews@yahoo.com.

Thanks.

--Robert Gotcher, Editor of ProVita

#### UFL Scholarly Achievement Award
University Faculty for Life Scholarly Achievement Award
in Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research
$600 total prizes
Possible presentation of work at annual conference
Opportunity for publication
University Faculty for Life is accepting submissions from college or university students for its Scholarly Achievement Award.  The contest is open to undergraduate and graduate students at any higher education institution (community college, medical school, seminary, university, etc.); postsecondary students enrolled in college-level courses are eligible as well.
The contest has three categories: Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research.  Multiple submissions are permitted.  Work submitted in any category must demonstrate the application of a life-affirming perspective on abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, or related issues.

The student scholars who win in any category may be offered an opportunity to read their work before the annual conference of University Faculty for Life to be held 6-7 June 2014 at Fordham University (Bronx, New York).  They may have their work published on UFL’s website and in conference proceedings.  Finally, first-place winners in each category will receive $200.

University Faculty for Life is an organization of scholars dedicated to the intellectual and scholarly inquiry of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and related issues. Since an increasing majority of college and university students are pro-life, UFL members would like to help these students by encouraging them to strive for scholarly excellence as they examine the life issues and by assisting them in building a publications portfolio.
Entries must be emailed or postmarked before 11:59 PM EST, Saturday, 24 May 2014
Rules
1.  Students must be enrolled in a higher education institution before the contest deadline; a photo or emailed copy of an identification card with current institutional sticker will suffice.

2.  The student shall affirm in a cover letter that the work submitted is the student’s original work.  Please enclose address and contact information in this letter.

3.  Essay submissions must be a minimum of six but no more than ten pages; poetry submissions can be of any length.  Both essay and poetry submissions must be double-spaced.

4.  Students retain the right of publication.

5.  A panel of judges will evaluate submissions based on the quality of research and the demonstration of strong communication and critical thinking skills.  Correct grammar and punctuation are required.  Research must follow either the APA Manual or the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, latest editions. The judges reserve the right to give a second place, third place, honorable mention, or no award if the quality of the submissions merits such action.  The decision of the judges is final.

6.  Students should submit their work electronically in Word format to DrJeffKoloze@att.net.  The cover letter and a hard copy of the paper may be mailed to UFL Scholarly Achievement Award, 10019 Granger Road, Garfield Heights, Ohio 44125-3101.

#### UFL Scholarly Achievement Award
One of the highlights of the UFL Life and Learning Conference every June is the Scholarly Achievement Award in Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research given to talented undergraduate and graduate students.  This year the awards were given by Jeff Koloze and Clara Sarrocco at the Saturday night banquet in an Oscar-style presentation, complete with "And the envelope, please!" The award recipients for this year were:

Sarrocco and Koloze at the Saturday banquet prepare to present the Scholarly Achievement Awards.
Creative Writing

	First place: Kimberly Hubbard (Baylor University) for her short story “Infinite?”

	Second place: Teresa Pincus (North Carolina State University) for her short story, “Confessions of a Sidewalk Counselor.”

Research

	First place: Andrew Kubick (Holy Apostles College and Seminary, Cromwell, Connecticut) for his essay “Could GMO Classification Facilitate the Global Trafficking of Human Embryos for Scientific Research?”
	Second place: Anthony Crescio (Marquette) for his essay, “Abortion: A Threat to the Actualization of the Mother as an Individual.”

The student scholars who win in any category may be offered an opportunity to read their work before the annual conference of University Faculty for Life. They may have their work published on UFL’s website and in conference proceedings. Finally, first-place winners in each category received $200.

#### UFL Scholarly Achievement Award for 2011
The deadline for University Faculty for Life’s Scholarly Achievement Award in Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research is quickly approaching.  Thanks to generous anonymous donors, the prize amounts for this year’s contest have been doubled.  Two documents about the contest are available for your use: a flyer suitable for newsletter reproduction and another document which details contest rules (email DrJeffKoloze@att.net or call 937-215-4337 for copies of both documents).  Please consult the UFL website for more details.

#### UFL subgroup formed on LinkedIn
A subgroup for pro-life academics has been created on LinkedIn.  The “University Faculty for Life” subgroup within Pro-Life Professionals has two essential purposes: 1. to monitor studies produced in various academic fields and to respond to anti-life statements in those works and 2. to encourage colleagues who engage in research and scholarly activity.  UFL members are invited to join this subgroup if they already have a LinkedIn account.

#### UFL's Long Island chapter's program on abortion and the African-American community
University Faculty for Life has long had a local chapter on Long Island. Jane Gilroy has led this group for many years. Here is a link to a news item about a recent event sponsored by the chapter. http://www.licatholic.org/news/2010/10/102710/AbortionDescribedasThreattoBlackCommunity.html The event explored the effects of abortion on the African-American community.

Richard M.

#### UK High Court rejects challenge to assisted suicide law
Here is a link to a blog post from Alex Schadenberg about a March 30, 2017 decision from the UK High Court rejecting a challenge to the law banning assisted suicide.

Here is a link to the opinion.

#### UK marginalizes pro-life doctors
Pro-life doctors in the UK have been excluded from practicing in the specialty "sexual and reproductive health" by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, according to LifeSiteNews.com. The rule covers anyone who refuses to prescribe any form of contraception, even those that may have abortifacient effects.

#### UK Prime Minister criticizes sex-selection abortion
Here is an interesting story reporting UK Prime Minister David Cameron's criticism of sex-selection abortion. http://www.aleteia.org/en/world/aggregated-content/uk-prime-minister-denounces-sex-selective-abortions-as-appalling-5773254941736960?utm_campaign=NL_en&utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=mail&utm_content=NL_en-24/03/2014

One of the interesting things about this issue is the trouble people who support abortion rights have in explaining why sex-selection sbortion is an "appalling practice." The story reports a comment that "This is not a debate about the rights and wrongs of abortion, but an issue of violence against women before they are born." But supporters of abortion rights have a hard time explaining why sex-selection abortion is appalling. For people in favor of abortion rights, it is not acceptable to object to the reason a woman has for an abortion. Sex-selection abortion, too, ought to be beyond criticism. Perhaps that is because, as one abortion rights supporter explained at the Roe at 40 conference at W & L (which UFL co-sponsored), there is no sex discrimination involved because the unborn baby doesn't become a girl until birth. The irrationality of that position is apparent. The whole controversy about sex-selection abortion is another opportunity to encourage people to recognize that every abortion takes the life of an innocent human being.

Richard M.

#### UN discusses the Right to Life
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights recently held a discussion on the meaning of the "right to life" on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This link takes you to the papers.

#### UN Human Rights Committee Report promotes abortion and assisted suicide
Here is a link to Stefano Gennarini's analysis of the threat posed by a recent draft document of the UN Human Rights Committee. Gennarini's analysis is entitled "UN Committee Excludes Unborn From Right to Life, Opens Door to Euthanasia."

#### UN-Women report silent on abortion
This post falls into the "good news/bad news" category.  The new United Nations Office, UN-Women, has published its 2011 report on the status of women, Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice.  The full report was originally available here,  but the link currently does not work.  

The report focuses on four key areas: legal and constitutional frameworks, the justice chain, plural legal systems and conflict and post-conflict. Drawing on tangible examples of steps that have been taken to help women access justice, the report sets out ten key recommendations for policy and decision makers to act on in order to ensure every woman is able to obtain justice.

According to the Parlimentary Network for Critical Issues ("PNCI"), the report is "being criticized for not promoting abortion in its strategic plan." According to Marie Smith, Director of PNCI,  "In the endless quest to establish legal abortion as a human right and funded as a so-called "solution" to reduce maternal mortality, pro-abortion organizations have attacked the new UN office on women, UN-Women, for its strategic plan which does not include the violence of abortion in its policy recommendations." The PNCI news report can be found here.

That the report does not promote abortion is both remarkable and encouraging.  That said, the fact that so many large NGOs (non-government organizations), especially those who hold themselves out as representing the interests of women, are adament that the report must due so is discouraging.

#### Understanding Virginia's New Abortion Clinic Regulations
The Virginia Department of Health has invited public comment on proposed regulations of abortion clinics in that state. UFL member, Michael New, has posted a brief comment on the proposed clinic regulations on NRO. 

This is an opportunity for our members to assist in the formation of sound public policy.  You can find the proposed regulations on the Virginia Dept. of Health website here.  The proposed clinic regulations are discussed on pp. 25-52. 

Written comments concerning the draft emergency regulations must be submitted to the Board prior to the September 15 meeting.  Comments may be submitted via email to commissioner.remley@vdh.virginia.gov; via U.S. mail to Post Office Box 2448, Richmond, Virginia 23218; or by fax to (804) 864-7022.

#### United States of America v. Richard Retta
Yesterday's Lifesite News carried an opinion piece by Brad Mattes criticizing the increase in federal prosecutions for violations of the Free Access to Clinic Entrance Act (FACE) by the current Department of Justice. He used the case of Richard Retta as an example of the harassing nature of the new complaints by DOJ. You can view an interview with Mr. Retta here. 

The Retta case is filed in the federal district court for the District of Columbia and captioned United States of America v. Richard Retta, Civil Action No. 11-cv-1280-JEB. (As noted in an earlier post on this blog, readers find court documents for federal cases on PACER.) Here are the facts pled by the DOJ in the case:

8. For over ten years, Defendant Richard Retta has regularly engaged in anti-abortion protest activity at the Planned Parenthood of Metropolitian Washington.
9. Defendant Retta has been among the most vocal and aggressive anti-abortion protesters outside of the Clinic.
10. Defendant Retta frequently walks very closely beside patients as they walk to the Clinic.
11. When volunteer patient escorts accompany patients towards the Clinic entrance, Defendant also typically walks in front of the escorts so that the escorts must change course and walk around Defendant in order to keep walking beside the patient.
12. Defendant frequently follows patients to the Clinic entrance and continues to yell at the patient as the door closes.
13. On one occasion, Defendant walked so close to a patient that he stepped on the patient's shoe and broke the shoe strap.
14. Defendant frequently follows patients and/or their companions as they leave the Clinic and walk down the block.
15. Defendant frequently follows patients or their companions into the street and oncoming traffic.
16. On January 8, 2011, Mr. Retta physically obstructed a patient from entering the Clinic, and physically obstructed Clinic escorts, such that the patient was only able to ultimately access the Clinic with the extraordinary assistance and intervention of another Clinic escort and staff.
17. At approximately 11:20 a.m., Defendant began talking to a patient as she stood in front of the Clinic gate.
18. After the patient became visibly upset, a volunteer escort offered to walk the patient to the Clinic so that the patient would not have to talk to Defendant.
19. As two volunteer escorts began walking the patient through the gate and along the narrow walkway to the Clinic entrance, Defendant walked alongside the patient and yelled at the escorts that they should not be escorting the patient into the Clinic. He followed alongside them for approximately 35 feet, nearly the entire length of the walkway from the sidewalk to the door of the Clinic.
20. About six feet in front of the Clinic entrance, Defendant walked in front of the patient and positioned himself so that he stood directly in front of the patient and escorts with his back towards the Clinic entrance.
21. The escorts repeatedly asked Defendant to move out of the patient’s way so that she could enter the Clinic, and otherwise attempted to guide the patient into the Clinic.
22. Defendant shouted at the escorts and yelled to the patient, “Don’t go in there. Don’t let them kill your baby.”
23. Each time the patient attempted to walk around Defendant so that she could enter the Clinic, Defendant shifted his position, weaving to step in front of the patient so that he blocked her access to the Clinic.
24. Defendant’s actions likewise prevented Clinic escorts from taking the patient up to the door of the Clinic.
25. The patient was only able to enter the Clinic, and the escorts were only able to facilitate her ingress, with assistance from third parties when another escort physically planted himself next to Defendant, preventing Defendant from continuing to block the patient. Additionally, the security officer who sits at the front desk inside the Clinic exited the Clinic in order to quickly guide the patient
into the Clinic.
26. The patient’s ultimate access to the Clinic, and the escorts’ ability to facilitate the patient’s entrance into the Clinic, were rendered unreasonably difficult and hazardous as a result of the obstruction.
27. Defendant attempted to, and did, by physical obstruction, intentionally intimidate or interfere with persons because they were or had been providing or obtaining reproductive health services, or in order to intimidate such persons from providing or obtaining reproductive health services at the Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington.

The government is asking that Mr. Retta be fined $10,000, pay damages of $5,000 to three patients, and be prohibited from engaging in sidewalk counseling or protest activities within 20 feet of the clinic entrance.

Last week Mr. Retta's attorneys with the American Center for Law and Justice filed a motion to dismiss the case on several grounds including on the ground that FACE does not authorize the federal government to files claims or seek money damages on behalf of private individuals.

Another story of DOJ suing a sidewalk counselor can be found here,.  Earlier this month, the 9th Circuit held that a local ordinance similar to FACE had to be enforced against volunteer escorts as well as sidewalk counselors.  You can find that story here.

#### University Faculty for Life chapter at Notre Dame
University Faculty for Life has had local chapters at Marquette and on Long Island for many years. Our newest local chapter is at the University of Notre Dame.  The Notre Dame chapter will be our local hosts for the 2011 University Faculty for Life annual conference on June 10-11, 2011.  

Here is a report on this very encouraging development. The leadership of the chapter includes Father Bill Miscamble CSC, Dan Philpott, Walter Nicgorski, Craig Lent, and Elizabeth Kirk. http://www.ndsmcobserver.com/news/pro-life-faculty-launch-national-group-chapter-1.1678425

Richard M.

#### University Faculty for Life conference at St. Thomas in late May 2015
The annual meeting of University Faculty for Life will be held at the University of St. Thomas Law School on May 29-31, 2015. We have had two successful conferences at St. Thomas (2004 and 2009) and I hope many of you will return for this year's conference. See here for registration information.

I just received this note from Professor Barbara Freres who is organizing the conference program:

It is not too late to propose a scholarly presentation of your own prolife work. Paper proposals should be one page (maximum) and should include the working title of the proposed paper, author’s name, affiliation, full contact information, and a brief abstract or outline. Proposals should be sent by April 20th, 2015, to Professor Barbara Freres at bjfreres@stritch.edu.

 

 

#### University Faculty for Life conference/call for papers
The call for papers for the next University Faculty for Life is in the latest issue of First Things (page 62 of the January 2012 issue). The conference (see http://uffl.org/2012conference.html) will be at Brigham Young University Law School in Provo, Utah on June 1-2, 2012. The keynote speaker and recipient of the Smith Award for outstanding contributions to pro-life scholarship is the distinguished moral theologian William E. May. Paper proposals should be submitted to Dr. Barbara Freres at bjfreres@stritch.edu.

Richard M.

#### University Faculty for Life Essay Contest 2015
University Faculty for Life is now accepting submissions from college and university students for its Scholarly Achievement Award in Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research.

Guidelines for the contest and a one-page flyer are available and will eventually be posted at http://www.uffl.org/studentawards.html.  Email DrJeffKoloze@att.net for the flyer and complete contest rules.

Although the deadline for the 2015 contest is Saturday, 16 May 2015, please encourage college and university students to consider submitting their work now. Three reminders will be emailed at appropriate intervals during the balance of this academic year (15 November, 1 February, and 30 April).

#### University Faculty for Life Essay Contest 2017
University Faculty for Life, a multidisciplinary association of scholars speaking out for human life, is now accepting submissions from college and university students for its Scholarly Achievement Award in Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, or Research.

Attached are guidelines for the contest and a one-page flyer.  Please distribute these documents to students, colleagues at your institution and other colleges and universities, and interested others.  These and related materials about the essay contest will eventually be posted at http://www.uffl.org/studentawards.html.

Although the deadline for the contest is Saturday, 27 May 2017, please encourage college and university students to consider submitting their work now.  Reminders will be emailed at appropriate intervals during the balance of this academic year.

Looking forward to seeing you at next year’s UFL’s conference to be held 9-10 June 2017 at the University of St Thomas (St. Paul, Minnesota)!

ufl-scholarly-achievement-award-for-2017

ufl-scholarly-achievement-award-flyer-for-2017

#### University Faculty for Life/2011 Conference
The Call for Papers for the 2011 University Faculty for Life annual meeting/conference was just issued. (See the ad on page 72 of the October 2010 issue of First Things.)

The 2011 conference will be at the University of Notre Dame on June 10-11, 2011. The keynote speaker and the recipient of the Smith Award for distinguished contributions to pro-life scholarship will be David Solomon. Dr. Solomon is the Director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture.

The program chair will be Frank Beckwith (Baylor). To submit a paper proposal by the April 4, 2011 deadline, please send an email to Frank at uflpaper@gmail.com

RichardM.

#### Update on California assisted suicide law
California's End of Life Option Act, which went into effect on 2016, was recently declared unconstitutional by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Ottolia. Judge Ottolia found that the California legislature had passed the law improperly. The law had been passed during a special session dedicated to healthcare issues and Judge Ottolia found that the suicide law was not germane to the purpose of the special session. Here is a link to a story by Wesley Smith on the state court ruling. Here is a link to an LA Times story describing the current status of the litigation. The California Attorney General has appealed Judge Ottolia's ruling but the California assisted suicide law is not currently in effect.

#### Update on Challenge to California Assisted Suicide Law
Here is a link to story about a decision by an appellate court in California dismissing a suit challenging the constitutionality of California's law allowing assisted suicide. Because it concluded that the plaintiffs lacked standing, the court did not rule on the constitutionality of the California  law. A state trial judge had held the law unconstitutional because the statute was passed at a legislative session dealing with health care funding and health care services. The trial court judge concluded that the assisted suicide law was not within the scope of the legislative session because he didn't think that allowing access to suicide related to health care funding or to improving the health of Californians.

#### update on conscience rights and the Washington board of pharmacy
Back in August, see http://uffl.org/blog/?p=104, it appeared that the Washington Board of Pharmacy might alter its rules and protect conscience rights. But as LifeNews reports, http://www.lifenews.com/2010/12/20/state-5753/ , the Washington Board of Pharmacy has voted (5-1) to keep its rules, which fail to protect pharmacists with a conscientious objection to dispensing plan B, in place.  

Richard M.

#### Update on embryo-destructive research
Here is a very useful update (by Christian Brugger) on recent legal developments relating to embryo-destructive research. http://culture-of-life.org//content/view/725/1

Richard M.

#### update on end of life counseling regulations
The Obama Administration has shelved the end of life counseling regulations. Here are links to Wesley Smith's commentary.

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/01/05/medicare-end-of-life-counseling-now-to-be-removed-from-regulations/

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/01/05/end-of-life-care-counseling-whiplash-part-2/

Richard M.

#### Update on HHS Mandate
Here is an item from the Catholic News Agency on recent developments relating to the HHS mandate. Here is the summary:

"The Trump administration announced broad new exemptions to the HHS contraceptive mandate on Friday [October 6, 2017], giving relief to religious non-profits and others with deeply held religious or moral convictions regarding contraception."

#### update on Phoenix abortion case
Here is link to my post on the Mirror of Justice blog that describes the developments. http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2010/12/recent-developments-in-the-phoenix-abortion-case.html 

After a review, Bishop Olmsted concluded that St. Joseph Hospital could no longer identify itself as a Catholic hospital.

Richard M.

#### Update on the litigation involving the funding of embryonic stem cell research
Courtesy of the Culture of Life Foundation, here is an analysis of the litigation involving the Obama Administration's policy with regard to funding embryonic stem cell research. http://culture-of-life.org//content/view/657/1/

Richard M.

#### US Abortion rate is Declining
Here is a link to a good article by Melanie Israel (Heritage Foundation) on the recent report from the Guttmacher Institute about the declining rates of abortion in the US.

Here is a link to Michael New's excellent analysis of the Guttmacher report. Here is New's concluding paragraph--

"With state legislatures nationwide enacting increasingly stronger protections for mothers and babies, many are anticipating that the U.S. Supreme Court may soon rule on an abortion case and could even soon restore legal protection to millions of unborn children. That said, it is impossible to say which cases the Supreme Court will decide to hear and how they will decide any given case.  That is why the long term decline in the U.S abortion rate is important.  The growing pro-life American majority has had a strong record of progress during the past 40 years and regardless of how the U.S. Supreme Court rules on any future case — we have plenty of reasons to stay the course."

#### US Catholic article on University Faculty for Life conference
Here is an article in U.S. Catholic about the recent University Faculty for Life (UFL) conference at Notre Dame. The article notes that pro-life faculty members are often isolated at their home institutions and mentions the importance of UFL in fostering fellowship among its members and in fostering pro-life scholarship.  http://www.uscatholic.org/news/2011/06/professor-says-pro-life-faculty-often-feel-isolated-campus-views

Richard M.

#### US Catholic Bishops to discuss a document on assisted suicide
Here is a LifeNews story on a new document opposing assisted suicide that the US Catholic bishops will conider at a meeting in mid-June.http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/catholic-bishops-to-vote-on-document-opposing-assisted-suicide/ 

This is a welcome development. After the major public battles on the issue in the mid-1990s, this issue has to some extent flown under the radar.

Richard M.

#### US House passes Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act!!!
Here is the LifeNews story on this development.

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/06/18/congress-passes-bill-banning-late-term-abortions-after-20-weeks/

Richard M.

#### US Supreme Court Grants Cert in RU-486 Case
This morning the Court released the following order:

12-1094 CLINE, TERRY, ET AL. V. OK COALITION FOR REPRODUCTIVE The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. This Court, pursuant to the Revised Uniform Certification of Questions of Law Act, Okla. Stat., Tit. 20, §1601 et seq. (West 2002), respectfully certifies to the Supreme Court of Oklahoma the following question: Whether H.B. No. 1970, Section 1, Chapter 216, O.S.L. 2011 prohibits: (1) the use of misoprostol to induce abortions, including the use of misoprostol in conjunction with mifepristone according to a protocol approved by the Food and Drug Administration; and (2) the use of methotrexate to treat ectopic pregnancies. 

Further proceedings in this case are reserved pending receipt of a response from the Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

#### US Supreme Court refuses to hear Arizona abortion case
Here is a link to a National Right to Life News story discussing the Court's refusal to hear a case involving the constitutionality of Arizona's statute that prohibited abortion after 18 weeks. The Ninth Circuit had invalidated the law and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2014/01/supreme-court-declines-to-review-lower-court-decision-on-arizona-law-which-differs-from-nrlcs-pain-capable-unborn-child-protection-act/

Richard M.

#### US Supreme Court refuses to hear case involving Arkansas's Heartbeat Law
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the Supreme Court's January 19, 2016 refusal to review a federal court of appeals decision holding unconstitutional the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act. The Arkansas law required abortionists to perform tests to determine whether the unborn child's heart was beating and also prohibited abortions if a heartbeat was detected and if the fetus is 12 weeks or greater gestation.

The federal court of appeals decision (Edwards v. Beck, 786 F. 3d 1113 (8th Cir. 2015)) that the Court refused to review was notable because the judges, who considered themselves bound by Supreme Court precedent, explained the problems with the Supreme Court's viability standard. The lower court further noted that the issues involved were better suited for the  legislative, not the judicial, process.

The Arkansas law was a direct challenge to Roe and Casey, which effectively prevent states from prohibiting abortions at any point during pregnancy.

http://www.lifenews.com/2016/01/19/supreme-court-blocks-arkansas-law-banning-abortions-after-babys-heart-starts-beating/

#### US Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Challenge to Arkansas Pro-Life Law
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on the US Supreme Court's refusal to hear a Planned Parenthood challenge to an Arkansas pro-life law. The case is called Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma v. Jegley and the Court denied review on May 29, 2018. The law restricts medication-induced abortions and requires clinics performing medication abortions to have a contract with an ob/gyn who has admitting privileges at a local hospital. A federal district judge struck down the Arkansas law but the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed that ruling.   The Court refused to hear a challenge to the Eighth Circuit's decision. Pro-choice groups had viewed the case as an important indicator of the Court's commitment to the its 2016 decision in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt. The Arkansas case will now return to the lower courts.

#### US Supreme Court refuses to review decision invalidating North Dakota's heartbeat law
On Monday January 25, 2016, the US Supreme refused to review the 8th Circuit's decision invalidating North Dakota's heartbeat law. (MKB Mgmt. Corp. v. Stenehjem, 795 F. 3d 768 (8th Cir. 2015).) The North Dakota law banned abortions when the unborn child has a detectable heartbeat. The Eighth Circuit considered itself bound by the Supreme Court's decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The 8th Circuit did note, however, that "good reasons exist for the Court to evaluate its jurisprudence." Among other reasons, the lower court noted that the Supreme Court's case law "discounts the legislative branch's recognized interest in protecting unborn children."

At this time, the Court doesn't appear interested in considering cases that attack Roe/Casey directly.

http://www.lifenews.com/2016/01/25/supreme-court-wont-let-north-dakota-ban-abortions-on-unborn-babies-after-6-weeks/

#### US Supreme Court vacates decision involving undocumented teen's abortion
Here is a link to the Court's decision in Azar v. Garza. In this case, the DC Circuit had allowed an undocumented teen who was in custody to obtain an abortion over the government's objection. Because the teen obtained an abortion, the Supreme Court considered the case moot and, pursuant to its standard practice, vacated the DC Circuit's decision and remanded the case to the lower court.

The Administration had asked the Court to sanction the teen's lawyers for "what appear to be material misrepresentations and omissions" that were "designed to thwart" Supreme Court review.  Without delving into the factual disputes about the teen's lawyers' conduct, the Court did not sanction the teen's lawyers.

The Court's decision did not resolve the broader issue of whether undocumented teens in governmental custody have a right to an abortion.

#### US tells UN there is no international right to abortion
Here is a link to a statement by HHS Secretary Alex Azar. The statement, before a UN meeting on universal health coverage, stated forcefully that "there is no international right to an abortion."

#### US-China Education Review publishing opportunity
Colleagues who presented papers at the International Association of Asian Studies earlier this year may be contacted by the US-China Education Review.  A UFL colleague will submit his paper on abortion in the works of Mo Yan and would be happy to assist others in the preparation of their work.

#### USCCB on the Phoenix abortion case
Here is a link to a statement on the Phoenix abortion case by the Committee on Doctrine of the US Bishops. http://usccb.org/doctrine/direct-abortion-statement2010-06-23.pdf

Richard M.

#### Vademecum of the anthropology of Bl. John Paul II
Bl. Pope John Paul II did a great deal both philosophically and theologically to bolster the culture of life both before and during his pontificate. Many of you may use his thought in your teaching and research.  The Humanitas Christian Anthropology and Culture Review of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile has published a  free downloadable Vademecum of his anthropology. It is in the form of an alphabetical list of terms with definitions and commentary taken from John Paul II's papal writings. Topics include Abortion, Contraception (and abortion), Culture (of death and of life), Death (fifth commandment, penalty, Euthanasia, Justice, Law, Liberty, Man, Morality, Right to Life, Science.

HT Zenit.org.

#### Vanderbilt forces nursing students to participate in abortions
That is the allegation made in a complaint filed with the Department of Health and Human Services. Here is the LifeNews.com story. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/11/vanderbilt-university-requires-nursing-students-to-do-abortions/

UPDATE: Apparently, Vanderbilt has responded to this complaint by making it clear that nursing students will not be required to participate in abortions. http://www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Jan2011/nv011411.html 

Richard M.

#### Vermont bill to legalize assisted suicide has major flaws
Here is Wesley Smith's commentary on some of the problems with a Vermont bill that would legalize assisted suicide. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/01/24/vermont-assisted-suicide-bill-the-usual-loophole-scam/

Richard M.

#### very good article by David Smolin--"A Religious Pro-Life Critique of Roe, Casey, and Abortion Rights Rhetoric"
Here is a link to a very good article by David Smolin (Cumberland Law).  The article is entitled "Aborting Reason and Equality: A Religious Pro-Life Critique of Roe, Casey, and Abortion Rights Rhetoric." Here is a paragraph from his introduction:

"Thus, religion's role in regard to abortion is primarily that of calling society to apply to the abortion issue society's own values of rationality, respect for human dignity, constitutionalism, democratic governance, science, and non-discrimination. Further, resistance to the abortion right is grounded not in idiosyncratic religious dogma or irrational belief, but in presuppositions shared broadly in American society. Hence, religion and religious organizations involved in anti-abortion activism are not seeking an aberrant exception to society's norms, but rather are participants in a broader movement founded in the most fundamental norms of our society."

#### Vice President Biden's Remarks on China' one-child policy
Here is the Lifenews story on Vice-President's remarks on China's one-child policy. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/22/biden-to-china-not-second-guessing-one-child-policy/

Biden said he wasn't "second-guessing" China's policy, although he did note that the policy was not sustainable because there wouldn't be enough young people to support any sort of social safety net for the elderly. Biden ignored the coercive measures (forced abortions and sterilizations) that the Chinese have used to implement the policy.

Richard M.

#### Video of GOP candidates on abortion and constitutional change
If readers want to view each of the GOP presidential candidates respond to Professor Robert George's question regarding abortion at the Palmetto Freedom Forum, you can find those exchanges on YouTube.  

Bachmann-George exchange at 5:27-8:18.

Cain-George exchange at 6:28-8:56.

Gingrich-George exchange at 7:46-9:15 very short answer then discussion of judicial role in Constitution.

Paul-George exchange at 00:01-4:14.

Romney-George exchange at 1:10-4:58, with question on conscience-protection at 7:10-7:49.

The links just take you to the correct youtube site and (with the exception of the exchange between COngressman Paul and Professor George) you must fast forward to the times indicated.

#### Videos Aimed at College Students from Feminists for Life
For those of you who are involved in on-campus pro-life groups and pro-life work, Feminists for Life is currently producing a series of videos aimed at encouraging college students to make pro-life personal choices. One recent video features Melissa Ohden, who was the "product of an unsuccessful abortion attempt." Other videos in the series are available here on the FFL Youtube channel. Featured speakers include Karen Shablin, "former card-carrying NARAL member," and Chaunie Brusie, a young woman who chose not to have an abortion after an unplanned, out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Other FFL videos are available here. HT National Catholic Register.

#### Violence Lets Planned Parenthood Rebound at the End of 2015
Violence Lets Planned Parenthood Rebound at the End of 2015 

By Lynn D. Wardle, Bruce C. Hafen Professor of Law at BYU Law School.

The year 2015 exposed some of the sleazy underside and disturbing practices of the commercialized abortion industry in the United States. Consequently, the past year was a difficult year for the public image of Planned Parenthood, the organization that presents itself as the respectable public face of abortion and the abortion industry in the United States.

Planned Parenthood Federation of American is the leading provider and facilitator of abortion in the United States. According to a 2014 fact sheet provided online by Planned Parenthood By The Numbers, at https://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/9313/9611/7194/Planned_Parenthood_By_The_Numbers.pdf (seen 11 December 2015), there are Planned Parenthood affiliates (68 in total) located in all fifty (50) American States and in the District of Columbia.  Planned Parenthood affiliate health centers in the United States provided some services to 2,840,000 million persons in the prior year.  Id.  Planned Parenthood described itself in that document as “one of the nation’s leading providers” of health services. Id. It states that it has more than 700 affiliate heath centers.  Id. 

Planned Parenthood also identified itself as “the nation’s largest provider of sex education.”  That is an especially chilling title.  It suggests that millions of American children are being indoctrinated in Planned Parenthood’s amoral (if not immoral) sexuality values through sex education delivered by Planned Parenthood.  The Planned Parenthood factsheet claims that its affiliates have had over 1.1 million persons in their education programs.

Our public schools are being used not merely to propagandize impressionable school children in the shallow and harmful world-views of Planned Parenthood.  Our public schools also are being used as recruiting centers and referral centers for Planned Parenthood.

It seems strange that anyone can keep a straight face while calling the killing living human beings in utero a health service (apart from the extremely rare circumstance of a pregnancy in that poses a deliberate and severe threat to the life or  health of the mother or unborn child.  Nevertheless, Planned Parenthood proudly provides elective (non-therapeutic) abortion services. The factsheet concedes that three percent (3%) of “all Planned Parenthood health services . . . are abortion services.”  (It does not explain what that means – e.g., that abortion is 3% of all of the procedures it performs, or involves 3% of its professional services time, or accounts of 3% of its income, or what).

Planned Parenthood claims to have 7,000,000 supporters, activists and donors. Id. 

In 2013, Planned parented reported that in the 2011-12 fiscal year it set a record for the amount of taxpayer funds it received.  That fiscal year, forty-five percent (45%) of its revenues came from government-funded sources. Sarah Torre, Planned parenthood Sets Record for Abortions and Government Funding, 9 January 2014, at  http://dailysignal.com/2013/01/09/planned-parenthood-sets-record-for-abortions-and-government-funding/ (seen 11 December 2015).  That same year, it reportedly performed 333,964 abortions.  Id.  The Susan B. Anthony List calculated that “Planned Parenthood ha[d] performed almost 1 million abortion in the past three years alone.” Id. 

However, in May 2013 infamous abortion doctor. Kemit Gosnell, was convicted of first degree murder in the deaths of three infants born alive during abortions he performed, of involuntary manslaughter  in the death of a woman patient Karnamaya Mongar, 21 additional felony counts of illegal later-term abortions, and 211 counts of violating Pennsylvania’s 24-hour informed consent law. That scandal cast an unfavorable light upon the abortion industry in general.

In the summer of 2015, an anti-abortion group, the Center for Medical Progress, released undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing in grisly detail how to abort fetuses to preserve their organs for harvesting and sale for research, and discussing the sale of aborted fetal parts. The videos became an online mega-hit, and portrayed an image of Planned Parenthood as possibly greedy, commercialized, acting at the margins or law and ethics, and generally insensitive.

The videos also led to a Congressional hearing about the disturbing practice which might violate existing federal laws and which exposes the possible need for further legislation to prohibit profiteering from selling the parts of aborted fetuses and embryos.  Ultimately, Planned Parenthood terminated its practice of accepting financial payments for the body parts from aborted fetuses and embryos. It announced that it would stop accepting “reimbursement” from the sale of aborted fetal body parts, and that it would donate them to researchers instead.

However, in late November 2015 a deranged zealot gunman, Robert Lewis Dear, attacked the Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado, engaging in a shootout that lasted for hours.  In that attack, the assailant killed three persons including a police officer, and wounded nine others.

How tragic and ironic it is that a man who claims to be pro-life commits murder and kills others! There is not now and never has been any place in the pro-life movement for persons who engage in killing or other forms of violence!

The horrific, murderous rampage at the Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs seems to have produced a backlash of sympathy for Planned Parenthood.  So instead of ending 2015 with a black eye in public relations owing to exposure of its sleazy practices, Planned Parenthood will end the year with an outpouring of sympathy.  Once again, violence defeats good efforts to unmask and stop evil.

 

 

#### Virginia governor signs ultrasound law
Here is a story from LifeNews.com about the signing of the Virginia ultrasound law.http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/07/virginia-gov-mcdonnell-signs-abortion-ultrasound-bill/?pr=1 The bill that Governor McDonnell signed was amended so that transvaginal ultrasounds are not required.

Richard M.

#### Virginia Ironside controversy
Virginia Ironside, a British journalist and novelist, has created a stir with her comments on a BBC program in which she advocates killing a child to end her suffering and also supports abortion as an act of kindness when the baby will be born with disabilities. Here is some background. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1317400/Virginia-Ironside-sparks-BBC-outrage-Id-suffocate-child-end-suffering.html See also http://lifenews.com/int1661.html

Here is Wesley Smith's insightful commentary. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/10/04/open-advocacy-for-killing-children-with-disabilities/

Richard M.

#### Wait and Think About It
Utah reportedly has the longest abortion waiting period in the country.  In 2012 the Utah legislature extended the mandatory waiting period before abortion from 24 hours to 72 hours.  The executive director of Planned Parenthood in Utah called it “the most onerous law in the land.”

The sponsor of the Bill, Rep. Steve Eliason, rejected the assertion that the bill was “Pro-Life.”  Rather, he considered it a “Pro-Consumer” bill, protecting the right of a woman to understand her options and the consequences of abortion before making an abortion decision.

Waiting periods protect women against being rushed into having an abortion that many will later regret.  Certainly the tens of thousands (now probably millions) of women who have carried grievous regrets throughout the rest of their lives after having a hasty abortions can testify of the value of giving women with an unplanned pregnancy a little time to “wait and think” before they are rushed into an irreversible medical procedure that will kill a living human in utero.

The killing of one’s own living progeny, even if unborn, can haunt a person and can impact other family members and family relationships severely. The consequences are not merely immediate and temporary, but they are permanent and perpetual.  Later relationships and later children – persons not even born at the time of decision -- will be affected by that lethal choice.

Utah’s waiting period requirement before abortion probably is one of the reasons why Utah has one of the lowest abortion rates in the nation.  In 2011, the rate of legal abortions in Utah was just 5.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-22.  That same year, the overall U.S. abortion rate was 16.9 – more than three times the abortion rate in Utah.

Nationally, the abortion rate for known pregnancies in 2011 was 18%.  In Utah that same year, only 5% of known pregnancies were ended by abortion.

Nationally, there seems to be a slackening of pro-life leadership. For example, despite huge Republican success in the November 2014 elections, Republicans leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2015 suddenly shelved a bill to prohibit most abortions after 20 weeks when they discovered that they were short of the votes needed to pass the measure. Instead, they pushed forward a bill permanently banning federal funding of abortion – which largely repeats prohibitions that have been enacted annually for many years.

“Wait-and-see” laws like Utah’s 72-hour waiting period requirement protect women’s right to make informed, carefully-considered decisions about very important matters like abortion.  Furthermore, it is easy for most people to see that opponents of such informed-choice laws that protect women who are in difficult circumstances because of an unexpected pregnancy have an agenda that subordinates the welfare of such women to partisan political objectives.

It is time to enact a law protecting all American pregnant women by insuring them the time to obtain and process all of the information that bears upon the abortion.  So how about passing a federal law requiring a 72-hour waiting period before abortion anywhere in the nation?

Sources: Dennis Romboy, Nation’s longest abortion waiting period …, Deseret News, 5/7/2012, at http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865555360/Nations-longest-abortion-waiting-period-among-new-Utah-laws-taking-effect.html?pg=all  (seen 150212).

Guttmacher Institute, State Factions About Abortion: Utah, http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/sfaa/utah.html (seen 150212).

 

-Posted 12 Feb 2015

by Lynn D. Wardle,  Bruce C. Hafen Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University

#### Waldron on "Equal Moral Status"
Jeremy Waldron has posted a  paper arguing that the idea of every human being having "equal moral status" is useful only if we distinguish between "sortal" and "condition" status.  He notes that the paper was originally prepared for the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. He explains "sortal" and "condition" status this way in the abstract to his paper:

This paper explores the possibility that the principle of basic equality might be explicated by reference to the idea that humans constitute a "single-status" community. It explores some difficulties with the idea of status in its original legal habitat. These difficulties include skepticism about status fostered by John Austin and others. The paper attempts to answer this skepticism, and it concludes (along with Jeremy Bentham, who in this respect disagreed with his disciple) that once one takes a dynamic view of a legal system, the idea of legal status is not an eliminable idea. The paper then examines the distinction between what I call "sortal-status" and "condition-status." Sortal status works from the idea that law recognizes different kinds of human being: racist and sexist legal systems are characterized by sortal-status concepts. Condition-status recognizes that persons may get into various scrapes, situations, conditions, and vicissitudes, or pass through certain stages, that are marked by status distinctions. (These include infancy, alienage, felony, bankruptcy, matriage, military service etc.) Once one makes this distinction, then the idea of a single (sortal) status society becomes a promising vehicle for expressing ideas about moral equality. 

While he does not discuss the unborn, it is clear from his acceptance of "condition" status, that such children's moral standing, if any, could be distinguished from that of competent adults.  A copy of the complete manuscript can be found here.

#### Waldron's new article on moral absolutes
Jeremy Waldron has a new piece, What Are Moral Absolutes Life?, posted on SSRN.  Exploration of this question is particularly important if we are to successfully persuade people that "do not kill the innocent" should be the law of the land, and that the unborn are among the innocent who must not be killed.

#### Washingon Insider
For updates about the relationship between governmental policy and bioethics (with a Catholic focus), the National Catholic Bioethics Center published the Washington Insider.  It is produced quarterly by Richard Doerflinger, Associate Director of the USCCB Secretariat of Pro-life Activities, and William Saunders, Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel of Americans United for Life.

Much of the information about policy and research is useful for non-Catholics.For instance, in the recent issue Saunders refers to the the following review article:
Thorp, John M. Jr.  "Public Health Impact of Legal Termination of Pregnancy in the US: 40 Years Later." Scientifica. Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 980812, 16 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.6064/2012/980812/.  Thorp is from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Here is the most Summer 2013 issue of Washington Insider.

#### Washington Post article on Abortion and Down Syndrome
Here is a link to a recent (March 5, 2018) article in the Washington Post entitled "Babies with Down syndrome are put on center stage in the U.S. abortion fight." And here is a link to a comment by Dave Andrusko in the National Right to Life News on the Post article.  Andrusko notes that this discussion "is a reminder of the power of dedicated parents, pro-life activists, and social media to change opinions."

#### We are on Facebook and Twitter now!
In an effort to get our message out more broadly University Faculty for Life now has a Facebook page (please "like" us) and we are on twitter ("Faculty4Life").  Blog postings will be linked to these two other methods of communicating our message of scholarly support for prolife efforts to protect all human beings from the moment of their conception to their natural death.

#### Website opposing Physician-Assisted Suicide
Massachusetts Citizens for Life provide links to a new website with thoughtful commentary on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, "Choice" is an Illusion.  The site is run by an elder law attorney, and her practical experience in the area shows.  Another good website on euthanasia is the Nightingale Alliance and Wesley Smith's blog, Secondhand Smoke, often has relevant posts.

#### Welcome to Robert Gotcher, new UFL newsletter editor
At our June meeting the Board of Directors decided to reinstitute publication of "Pro Vita," our association newsletter. We are excited to announce that Dr. Robert F. Gotcher has agreed to serve as editor for the next three years.  Dr. Gotcher  most recently served as Associate Professor of Systematic Studies at Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. He and his wife, Kathy, are raising their seven children in Franklin, Wisconsin. Dr. Gotcher graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1981 with a B.A. in the Program of Liberal Studies. He received his M.A. in Theology of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul in 1991 and his Ph.D. from Marquette University in 2002. Dr.Gotcher maintains a blog, Classic Catholic, and is involved in the secular Franciscan order, home schooling, and pro-life activities in the Milwaukee area and nationally. 

The newsletter will be distributed to UFL members electronically on a quarterly basis.  It will feature items of scholarly interest pertinent to the areas of concern to UFL's pro-life mission, and take note of new prolife scholarship by UFL members, meetings and academic conferences related to UFL's mission.

Look for your first newsletter via email in October!

#### Wesley Smith comment on suicide obsession
Here is an interesting item from Wesley Smith entitled "Modern Suicide Obsession a Troubling Sign of Nihilistic Times."  http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/05/23/modern-suicide-obsession-a-troubling-sign-of-nihilistic-times/

Richard M.

#### Wesley Smith on Death with Dignity
Here is a link to a good column by Wesley Smith on true death with dignity

#### Wesley Smith on Organ Donation and Suicide
At the First Things blog  Wesley Smith comments on a tragic story of a 12-year Indian girl who commited suicide to provide organs for her father and brother.

#### Wesley Smith on the "Gerber Baby"
Here is a link to an excellent piece by Wesley Smith on the selection of Lucas Warren, a baby with Down syndrome, as the Gerber Baby of 2018.

#### Wesley Smith on the expansion of euthanasia in Europe
Here is link to an item in the National Right to Life News by Wesley Smith in which he discusses his article in the May 2013 First Things ("Medicinal Murder") on the expansion of euthanasia in Europe.  Here's the conclusion of the National Right to Life post--"The collapse of morality in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland around issues of euthanasia and suicide–abundantly detailed in the article is a clarion warning to other countries to turn away from the “death with dignity” agenda before it is too late."

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2013/04/euthanasia-changes-culture/

Richard M.

#### Wesley Smith on the litigation over ESCR
Here is a link to discussion by Wesley Smith of the litigation concerning embryonic stem cell research. See http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/05/19/of-embryonic-stem-cell-research-politics-and-the-rule-of-law/

Richard M.

#### Wesley Smith on the New Eugenics
Here is an interesting post from Wesley Smith on "The New Eugenics."  http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/03/09/the-new-eugenics-selecting-for-intelligence-or-whats-love-got-to-do-with-it-julian-savulescu/

Smith' post is a commentary on a recent article in an Australian paper describing the views of Oxford's Julian Salvulescu, who believes that there is a moral obligation to use IVF to breed smarter babies.

Richard M.

#### Wesley Smith post on euthanasia in Belgium
Here is a link to an interesting post by Wesley Smith on the further advance of euthanasia in Belgium. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/01/17/pushing-euthanasia-as-the-rule/

Richard m.

#### Wesley Smith Presentation on “The Danger of an Undignified Bioethics”
Wesley Smith, a plenary speaker at the 2013 Life and Learning Conference, opened with the question, "Why, when medical science has gone so far to limit and eliminate pain, are we considering 'the right to die,' 'death with dignity,' and 'assisted suicide'?" He believes that the answer lies in Yuval Levin's explanation that “health” has become a principle goal of the human action and human societies, and therefore eliminating suffering is important public good that too often that morphs into eliminating the sufferer.  If you are interested in more of his argument, check out his blog, Human Exceptionalism on NRO.

#### Wesley Smith's commentary on UK assisted suicide report
Here is a link to Wesley Smith's insighful commentary on the recently issued report in the UK from the Commission on Assisted Dying. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/01/04/uk-pro-assisted-suicide-report-pushes-a-pentimento/  Smith concludes that this report is further evidence that England "is undergoing a tragic slow motion moral collapse."

Richard M.

#### Wesley Smith's response to Jack Kevorkian's lecture at UCLA
Here is Wesley Smith's response to the news that Jack Kevorkian will be lecturing at UCLA on January 15, 2011.http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/01/12/kevorkian-demonstrates-that-killing-can-be-a-path-to-fame-and-fortune/

Smith comments near the conclusion of his post: "Few things better illustrate the degradation and degeneration of our culture than the elevation of Kevorkian in the media and popular culture to respectability and adulation. " 

Richard M.

#### Western nations pressuring Latin American nations to liberalize abortion laws
Here is a link to a story from the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute on Western nations who are misusing the UN Human Rights Process to pressure nations in Latin America to liberalize their abortion laws. http://www.c-fam.org/fridayfax/volume-14/latin-america-pressured-to-liberalize-abortion-laws-under-un-human-rights-process.html

This is a part of a worrisome trend of pro-abortions forces attempting to use a non-existent international right to an abortion to pressure nations to change their domestic laws.

Richard M.

#### What biologists affirm
As I was preparing for the upcoming issue of ProVita, I ran across this book on Amazon: Embryos Under the Microscope: Ths Diverging Meanings of Life, by Jane Maienschein. The author claims to be giving a history of the human knowledge of embryology so that ethical decisions can be based on accurate scientific information. What I found interesting was this assertion in the book description:
Biologists confirmed that embryos are living organisms undergoing rapid change and are not in any sense functioning persons. They do not feel pain or have any capacity to think until very late stages of fetal development.
As you can see, the embryo is excluded from personhood based on function, They can't feel pain or think. This, of course, is not a biological determination, but a philosophical one. Biologists don't determine who is a person and who is not. And philosophers aren't unanimous that function is the basis for determining personhood. Others look to a more comprehensive and precise criterion, active potency. The human organism has the active potency to develop functions such as sensitivity to pain and cognition from fertilization.

#### What do the abortion and marriage issues have in common (besides judicial overreach)?
Blessed Pope John Paul II writes in The Gospel of Life (1995), no. 97:
It is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not help the young to accept and experience sexuality and love and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection. Sexuality, which enriches the whole person, "manifests its inmost meaning in leading the person to the gift of self in love." The trivialization of sexuality is among the principal factors which have led to contempt for new life. Only a true love is able to protect life. There can be no avoiding the duty to offer, especially to adolescents and young adults, an authentic education in sexuality and in love, an education which involves training in chastity as a virtue which fosters personal maturity and makes one capable of respecting the "spousal" meaning of the body.
It seems to me that equating homosexual relationships with marital ones is an example of the trivialization of sexuality, of disrespecting the "spousal" meaning of the body.

#### What Effects Would Redefining Marriage Likely Have On Children Of Heterosexuals?   Testing Competing Hypotheses With European Data re: Marriage, CBOW & Abortions
Social scientists and commentators have offered opposing hypotheses about the likely effects on children of redefining marriage in genderless terms.  Some advocates of the redefinition have postulated that, by “expanding” marriage to include same-sex couples, such a redefinition would strengthen the overall marriage culture and thereby increase the percentage of children raised by two parents in stable households.  This hypothesis is an important component of what is sometimes called the “conservative case” for same-sex marriage.[1]

 

How might these competing hypotheses be tested against real-world data?  One problem, as Justice Alito noted in his opinion in United States v. Windsor, is that genderless marriage is still too new – especially in the United States – to permit robust testing using rigorous social-science methods.[5]  However, in Europe, six nations have had genderless marriage regimes long enough to permit at least preliminary testing and evaluation:  Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and the Netherlands, which adopted same-sex civil union regimes that were the practical equivalent of marriage in 1993, 1995, 1996, and 1998, respectively, and subsequently adopted genderless marriage expressly; and Belgium and Spain, which expressly adopted genderless marriage regimes in 2003 and 2005, respectively.[6]  In three separate respects, data from these nations undermine the “Conservative Case” hypothesis and support the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis.

 

Marriage rates.  The most obvious implication of the Conservative Case hypothesis is an expected increase in marriage rates generally—not only among homosexuals, but also among progressive heterosexuals, for whom the stigma of marital inequality would be lifted.  On the other hand, the most obvious implication of the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis is an expected decline in marriage rates among heterosexuals.  Unfortunately, these six nations generally do not report marriage rates separately for man-woman and same-sex couples.[7]  But given that heterosexuals make up the vast majority of the population, a decline in marriage rates among heterosexuals should—in equilibrium and over time—show up as a decline in overall marriage rates.

 

The data strongly suggest that marriage rates among heterosexuals have indeed declined in most of these six nations since their adoption of genderless marriage (or equivalent) regimes.  The following table shows the changes in marriage rates in each of these nations from their adoption of genderless marriage until 2010, the last year for which data are consistently available, and compares those changes with the changes in European nations generally over similar periods:

 

Table 1:  Marriage Rates In European Nations 

Adopting Same-Sex Marriage (Or Practical Equivalents) Before 2006[8]

                        

Nation
Year adopted SSM or equivalent
Marriage rate in prior year[9]
Marriage rate, 2010 
Percent change

 
 
 
 
 

All EU-27 nations
 
5.1 (1998)
4.4
-13.7%

 
 
4.9 (2004)
 
-10.2%

 
 
 
 
 

 Norway
1993 (2009)[10]
4.3
4.8
11.6%

 Sweden
1995 (2009)
4.6
5.3
15.2%

 Iceland
1996 (2010)
5.6
4.9
-12.5%

 Netherlands
1998 (2001)
5.5
4.5
-18.1%

 Belgium
2003
3.9
3.9
0

 Spain
2005
5.1
3.6
-29.4%

 

As the table shows, marriage rates have generally declined in Europe during this period—by over 13 percent between 1998 and 2010, and over 10 percent from 2004 to 2010.  But the decline in one of these nations--Spain at 29.4% over the period from 2004 to 2010--was significantly in excess of the overall European decline of 10.2 percent over that same period.  And that is obviously consistent with the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll prediction that the adoption of genderless marriage leads some percentage of the heterosexual male population to lose interest in marriage altogether.

 

The data for two other countries—Iceland, which saw significant but slightly smaller declines in marriage rates than the European average over a similar period, and Belgium, which saw no change—are also consistent with this prediction.  That is because, all else being equal, the advent of officially sanctioned same-sex marriage could be expected to cause a small but temporary increase in overall marriage rates because of pent-up demand for marriage by same-sex couples.  If that expectation is correct—as same-sex marriage advocates claim[11]—then it appears that marriages involving heterosexual men were also probably declining in Iceland at a faster clip than the overall decline in European marriage rates.  That could also be true in Belgium—depending on the relative percentage of same-sex couples reflected in the marriage statistics—although the data do not conclusively show that.

 

Thus, by comparison to the rest of Europe, marriage rates among heterosexuals appear to have declined more rapidly than one would expect in at least three of the six European nations that were “early movers” in enacting same-sex marriage or its functional equivalent.[12]  That correlation tends to support the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis.  It also contradicts the Conservative Case hypothesis, which would predict increased overall marriage rates—something that clearly did not occur in four of the six nations.

 

By contrast, the Swedish and Norway experience during this period appears at first blush to support the Conservative Case hypothesis.  But the fact that the experience of four of these six nations is inconsistent with that hypothesis suggests that some other exogenous—and possible transitory—factor explains the increase in Sweden’s and Norway’s marriage rates.

 

In sum, though it is far from conclusive, the European marriage data provide some support for the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis, while generally undermining the Conservative Case Hypothesis.

 

Out-of-wedlock births.  Both hypotheses predict additional changes in measures related to procreation.  Specifically, with a decrease in males’ interest in marriage (but no decrease in their interest in sex), the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis would predict an increase in the percentage of out-of-wedlock births, an increase in the percentage of pregnancies that end in abortion, or some combination of the two.  That is because unmarried women who become pregnant as a result of sexual relations with men who lack an interest in marriage would increasingly face the choice between completing the pregnancy and bringing the baby into an unmarried household, or obtaining an abortion.  By contrast, the Conservative Case hypothesis would predict a reduction in both out-of-wedlock births and abortions, as the “expansion” of marriage (under that hypothesis) would both legitimize the institution and reinforce its pro-child norms.  Here again, data for the six European nations that first adopted genderless marriage generally confirm the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis and decisively refute the Conservative Case hypothesis.

 

The chart below, for example, shows the percentage of live births to unmarried mothers:

 

Table 2:  Out-of-Wedlock Births In European Nations

Adopting Same-Sex Marriage (Or Practical Equivalents) Before 2006[13]

                        

Nation
Year adopted SSM or equivalent
Out-of-wedlock birth % in prior year
Out-of-wedlock birth %, 2010
Percent change

 
 
 
 
 

All EU-27 nations
 
27.3 (2000)
38.3
40.2%

 
 
29.1 (2003)
 
31.61%

 
 
 
 
 

 Norway
1993
49.0[14]
54.8
32.2%

 Sweden
1995
54.7
54.2
-1.0%

 Iceland
1996
64.0
64.3
0.5%

 Netherlands
1998
20.8
44.3
89.0%

 Belgium
2003
28.0[15]
46.2
65.0%

 Spain
2005
25.1
35.5
41.4%

 

As the chart shows, four of the six nations saw substantial increases in the percentage of children born to unmarried mothers.  In one case—Norway—the increase (32.2 percent) was less than the overall percentage increase in all of Europe during a similar period.  But that is offset by the fact that at 49 percent, Norway’s initial unwed birth percentage was already about twicethe overall European percentage—indicating that Norway had far less room for an increase than other nations.  And clearly, Norway’s adoption of same-sex marriage did nothing to reverse its high percentage of out-of-wedlock births—contrary to the “Conservative Case” hypothesis.

 

More troubling, three of the six nations saw increases in out-of-wedlock births substantially in excess of the European average:  The Netherlands saw an increase in unwed births of 89 percent, more than double the European average increase during the same period of 40 percent.  Belgium also saw an increase of 65 percent.  And in just five years, Spain saw a jump of more than 41 percent, as compared with a Europe-wide increase of about 32 percent during the period from 2003 to 2010.  All of these nations started out at levels comparable to or below the overall European average.  These nations’ experience therefore strongly confirms the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis and contradicts the “conservative case” hypothesis.

 

In the two remaining nations—Sweden and Iceland—the percentage of unwed births remained essentially unchanged.  But as we will see, during these years both nations also saw substantial increases in their abortion rates, indicating that many expectant mothers chose abortion rather than bringing a baby into an unmarried household.  As with Norway, moreover, the initial unwed birth percentage in both nations was already substantially in excess of the European average—more than twice as high in Iceland’s case.  If the Conservative Case hypothesis were correct, we would expect to see at least some significant decline in the percentage of unwed births in these nations—especially in light of the substantial period during which same-sex marriage has been available.  But there has been no such decline, and that fact once again refutes the Conservative Case hypothesis.

 

In short, European statistics on unwed births strongly refute the Conservative Case hypothesis, while supporting (albeit less strongly) the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis.

 

	  That conclusion is confirmed by statistics on abortions in the six “early mover” European nations.  Given that abortion is an obvious practical alternative to an unwed birth, it is important to examine both sets of statistics together.  Moreover, if the “Conservative Case” hypothesis is correct, we would expect to see a reduction in abortions (which have generally been decreasing worldwide in any event).  That is because, under that hypothesis, allowing same-sex couples to marry will reinforce the value of marriage and the pro-child norms that it embraces—thereby leading more unmarried heterosexual couples to choose marriage rather than abortion when faced with an unexpected pregnancy.

 

By contrast, if the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis is correct, we would expect to see an increase in abortions as a result of the alienation of heterosexual men from marriage.  That alienation would naturally lead to a relative increase in the number of unmarried but pregnant women.  And because unmarried pregnant women are much more likely than married pregnant women to obtain abortions,[16] a relative increase in the former will naturally lead to higher abortion rates.  That tendency would also be reinforced if, as suggested by Allen-Hawkins-Carroll and others, the adoption of genderless marriage necessarily changes the public meaning or perception of marriage from an institution principally concerned with procreation and children to one that is principally concerned with the well-being of adults.[17]  In most societies, marriage is the only social institution largely dedicated to children, and its high status stands as a constant reminder to society that the interests of children should take precedence over the interests of adults.  But a society that redefines marriage to accommodate the romantic interests of a small subset of the adult population necessarily conveys to its members that adult interests can appropriately trump the interests of children.  That message will tend to legitimize decisions by non-married and married citizens to place their own interests above the interests of their children – including their unborn children.  And that, in turn, will tend to increase the abortion rate.

 

Consistent with the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis, moreover, among all six nations there appears to have been a substantial increase in abortion, as measured by the percentage of all pregnancies:

 

Table 3:  Abortion Percentages In European Nations

Adopting Same-Sex Marriage (Or Practical Equivalents) Before 2006[18]

                                                     

Nation
Year adopted SSM or equivalent
Abortion % in prior year 
Abortion % 

2011
Percent change

All EU-27 Nations
 
27.6 (1998)
19.1
-30.1%

 
 
23.2 (2004)
 
-17.7%

 
 
 
 
 

 Norway
1993
20.1
20.3
1.0%

 Sweden
1995
22.4
25.2
12.5%

 Iceland
1996
15.9
17.8
11.9%

 Netherlands
1998
10.6
13.4
26.4%

 Belgium
2003
12.4
13.4
8.0%

 Spain
2005
15.8
18.8
19.0%

 
 
 
 
 

As the chart shows, since 1998, abortion percentages in Europe generally have declined dramatically—by some 30 percent from 1998-2011 and nearly 18 percent from 2004-2011.   These results are confirmed by a 2012 joint study by the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization showing that overall abortion rates (the number of abortions per 1000 women of child-bearing age) in the developed world have consistently declined since 1995 (up to 2008, the last year analyzed by the study).[19]  Specifically, in developed countries other than Eastern Europe (where abortion rates have been higher), between 1995 and 2008 the average abortion rate declined by about 15 percent.

 

But at the same time, all but one of the six “early mover” nations saw a substantial increase in the abortion percentage (as well as abortion rates).  Spain’s progression is especially remarkable:  Over the 2004-2011 period, it saw an increase of 19 percent.  Over a somewhat longer period (1997-2011), the Netherlands saw an even larger increase of more than 26 percent.  The average change in the abortion percentage for the entire group was 11.3 percent.

 

For Sweden and Iceland, moreover, the sharp increase in abortions explains why the percentage of live births to unmarried mothers did not increase significantly:  More pregnant women simply chose abortion rather than bringing a new baby into an unmarried household.  And for Norway, which saw only a modest increase in its abortion percentage, it appears that a higher percentage of unmarried pregnant women chose the latter course rather than choosing an abortion.

 

Especially in light of the Europe-wide trend, the fact that abortion rates in all six of the “early mover” European nations increased rather than declined contravenes the “Conservative Case” hypothesis and supports the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis.

 

Conclusion.  All of these results—for marriage rates, out-of-wedlock births and abortions—are summarized in the following table:

 

Table 4:  Do the European Data As A Whole Support The “Conservative Case” 

Hypothesis (“CC”) Or The Allen-Hawkins-Carroll Hypothesis (“AHC”)?

 

Nation
Marriage rate
Out-of-Wedlock Birth Percentage
Abortion Percentage
Overall conclusion

 Norway
CC
Neutral
AHC
Neutral

 Sweden
CC
AHC
AHC
AHC

 Iceland
AHC
AHC
AHC
AHC

 Netherlands
AHC
AHC
AHC
AHC

 Belgium
Neutral
AHC
AHC
AHC

 Spain
AHC
AHC
AHC
AHC

Overall conclusion
AHC
AHC
AHC
AHC

 

As the table shows, some of the individual data points on marriage rates and out-of wedlock births either support the “Conservative Case” (“CC”) hypothesis (Sweden’s marriage rates) or are neutral as between the two hypotheses (e.g., Belgium’s marriage rates).  But when taken as a whole, each of those data series—as well as all the data on abortions—supports the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll (“AHC”) hypothesis.

 

Except for Norway, the same is true when one examines the three data items for each nation.  Even the data for Sweden, whose marriage rate history alone seems to support the “Conservative Case” hypothesis, on the whole support the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis because the data on out-of-wedlock births and abortions are consistent with that hypothesis and not the Conservative Case hypothesis.[20]

 

In short, the early European data as a whole appear to contradict the “Conservative Case” hypothesis and support the conclusion by Allen, Hawkins and Carroll that the adoption of a genderless marriage regime tends to alienate substantial numbers of heterosexuals from marriage—much to the detriment of their children.

-Posted by Lynn D. Wardle, 27 June 2014

 

[1] See, e.g., Jonathan Rauch, “Conservative Case for Gay Marriage,” USA Today, May 16, 2013, available at USTToday.com; A. Barton Hinkle, “A Conservative Case for Gay Marriage,” Reason, October 7, 2013, available at reason.com; Theodore B. Olson, “The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage,” Newsweek, January 8, 2011, available at Newsweek.com; James Kirchick, “The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage,” New York Daily News, March 5, 2013; [others?]

[2] E.g., Douglas Allen, “An Economic Assessment of Same-Sex Marriage" 29 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 949-980 (2006); Douglas Allen, “Who Should Be Allowed Into the Marriage Franchise?" 58 Drake Law Review 1043-75 (2010).

[3] See, e.g., [E.g., Hawkins-Carroll amicus brief in Latta v. Otter (9th Circuit, June 26, 2009), or Allen-Hawkins-Carroll article]

[4] See, e.g., Girgis, Anderson, & George, What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense, at 23-28 (2012).

[5] United States v. Windsor, 133 S.Ct. 2675, 2715-16 (Alito, J., dissenting).

[6] Denmark adopted a registered partnership arrangement for same-sex couples in 1989.  But as to adoption and other significant matters, and unlike the arrangements in Norway and Sweden, Denmark’s registered partnership arrangement did not give same-sex couples the same rights as married couples.  That did not occur until Denmark expressly redefined marriage in 2012.

[7] The Netherlands is the only apparent exception.

[8] Sources:  Statistics on marriage rates for 2010 are available on the Eurostat website under “marriage and divorce statistics; other marriage rates available from Eurostat at epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm.

[9] The earliest year for which data are consistently available is 1998, so that year is used for nations that adopted same-sex-marriage-equivalent regimes before then.

[10] For Norway, Sweden and Iceland, the year in parentheses is the year in which marriage was formally redefined in genderless terms, after having been effectively redefined previously because of a marriage-equivalent civil union or registered partnership regime.

[11] See, e.g., Chris Kirk & Hanna Rosin, “Does Gay Marriage Destroy Marriage?, Slate, May 23, 2012 ("Start with Massachusetts, which endorsed gay marriage in May 2004. That year, the state saw a 16 percent increase in marriage. The reason is, obviously, that gay couples who had been waiting for years to get married were finally able to tie the knot. In the years that followed, the marriage rate normalized but remained higher than it was in the years preceding the legalization. So all in all, there’s no reason to worry that gay marriage is destroying  marriage in Massachusetts.").

[12] Mircea Trandafir finds that the adoption of a same-sex marriage equivalent regime in the Netherlands had no statistically significant effect on overall marriage rates in that nation.  Trandafir, “The Effects of Same-Sex Marriage Laws on Different-Sex Marriage:  Evidence from the Netherlands,” 15 Demography 317-341 (2014).  However, he finds that the adoption of that regime—and the subsequent express adoption of genderless marriage in 2001—did have a statistically significant impact on two major Dutch population groups:  (a) those living in large urban areas and (b) those without strong religious affiliations.  Id. at 336-37.  This conclusion likewise supports the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis, given that men in these two groups, who would typically have weaker ties to groups that would likely reaffirm the importance of marriage, would likely be more susceptible to the social messages created by the redefinition of marriage.

[13] Source:  Eurostat

[14] The earliest numbers for Norway, Sweden and Iceland were from 1998, so that is what is used here.

[15] Data are unavailable for Belgium in 2001 and 2002, so the number for 2000 was used instead.

[16] See, e.g., National Center for Health Statistics, Data Brief No. 136 (December 2013), available at www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db136.pdf (in the U.S., the abortion rate for unmarried women is “almost five times higher than for married women”).

[17] See, e.g., Girgis, Anderson, & George, What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense, at 23-28 (2012).

[18] Source:  Wm. Robert Johnston, Abortion Statistics and Other Data, last updated 14 April 2014, www.johnstonsarchive.net.

[19] See Guttmacher Institute, “Facts on Induced Abortion Worldwide,” January 2012, available at www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_IAW.html.

[20] The same is true for the Netherlands even under Trandafir’s conclusion that the advent of a same-sex marriage-equivalent regime there had no statistically significant effect on overall marriage rates.  Even if that is true, the Netherlands saw such remarkable increases in both unwed births and abortions that the data for that nation overall support the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll hypothesis.  The same is true of the data on marriage rates overall:  Even if the Netherlands data were treated as neutral as between the Allen-Hawkins-Carroll and the Conservative Case hypotheses, the data overall would still favor the former.  And of course, as noted previously, Trandafir also concluded that the Netherlands’ same-sex marriage regime caused a decline in marriage rates among the more urban and less religious portions of the nation’s population.

#### What Happens to Women Denied Abortions?
In What Happens to Women Who Are Denied Abortions, the New York Times writes about a study finding women who are denied abortions have no more emotional and mental health problems after the birth of the child than women who have abortions.  The women also regularly bond with their child.  The study finds, however, that the women and their children are likely to experience adverse economic consequences from the unwanted pregnancy - at least if they choose not to place the child with another family through adoption.  So why isn't the right answer to encourage adoption instead of abortion?  The results of the study do not appear to be published since it is ongoing at this time.

#### What is the Best Article on Legal History of Abortion Regulation prior to Roe?
In his presentation, "The Logic of Roe v. Wade and the Quality of Its Arguments," Frank Beckwith noted that James Witherspoon's 1985 article, Reexamining Roe: nineteenth-century abortion statutes and the Fourteenth Amendment, is the best short critique of Justice Blackmun's distorted history of abortion law in Roe v. Wade.  Add to this Joseph Dellapenna's magisterial work, Dispelling the Myths of Abortion History, and it is clear that an accurate legal history of abortion law provides no support for the abortion license created in Roe v. Wade.

#### What kind of issue is abortion
Recently commentators have been going back and forth about Pope Francis's comments that seemed to some to downplay the Church's position on some issues, such as abortion, contraception, homosexuality, and divorce.  What I found bizarre was the assertion by some people that all the issues the pope mentioned were "pelvic issues," or "pelvic zone issues," implying, for instance, that those who were concerned about the effect of the pope's remarks on the pro-life movement were obsessed with sex. An example can be seen in this Chicago Tribune commentary by Eric Zorn.

Abortion is not a pelvic issue or even a pelvic zone.  It is a life issue. It is only accidental (in the philosophical sense) that abortion occurs in a reproductive organ or that it follows a sexual act. It is no more a pelvic issue that infanticide or euthanasia.

#### What's "Choice" Got to do with Dutch Euthanasia?
That's the title of a recent post by Wesley Smith. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/11/09/whats-choice-got-to-do-with-dutch-euthanasia/ Smith discusses a recent incident in the Netherlands when a committee of doctors authorized the killing of a patient suffering severe dementia, even though the patient was unable to express her choice to die. This is, as Smith notes, not a new problem but the incident may focus attention on the real issues--the value of human life (even when the person is disabled in some manner) and whether killing the person is a "cure.'

Richard M.

#### When is a free speech zone not a free speech zone?
When someone speaks out against abortion. See this National Catholic Register article about two pro-life activists, Thrin and Joan Short, who were harassed by a faculty member at University of California--Santa Barbara.

#### Why abortion is still the most important political issue
UFL member, O. Carter Snead (Notre Dame), has a terrific new article on the Public Discourse blog, Protect the Weak and Vulnerable: The Primacy of the Life Issue. In the article, he first establishes that the debates over abortion and embryo destructive research are really about membership in the human family and the reach of the American promise of "liberty and justice for all."  He compares the records of Presidents George W. Bush and Barak H. Obama on the protection of the unborn and identifies actions the next president can take to advance legal protection for all Americans, including the tiniest and most vulnerable of us.

No doubt after reading this essay some will still disagree with those of us who believe that the life issue is the single most important political issue of our day, but it won't be for lack of a clear explanation of our position.

#### Why do we still tolerate post-viability abortions?
Mark Osler, a colleague at St. Thomas expert on criminal sentencing, presented a paper questioning why so many states still allow post-viability abortions.  His paper "Roe's Ragged Remnant: Viability" is now available on SSRN.  It is a nice snapshot of the current state of the law and worth reading.

#### Why do women have abortions?
In a recent opinion piece on LifeSiteNews, Randall K. O'Bannon analyzes a recent study by researches at the University of California San Francisco on the reasons women seek abortions. The opinion piece, "Women have abortions because they feel trapped and hopeless, study finds," looks at the findings of the article, “Understanding why women seek abortions in the U.S.,” by M. Antonia Biggs, Heather Gould, and Diana Greene Foster, from the July 5, 2013, edition of BMC Women’s Health.

O'Bannan, the National Right to Life Director of Education and Research, uses the data to explore the kinds of assistance women need to help them decide for alternatives to abortion:
Identifying one single approach that will address every woman’s concerns and change her mind is difficult, given the multiplicity of the reasons and rationales given by women for seeking abortion. Some will be benefited by being connected to better support systems, while others need practical economic assistance. Anything making men more responsible for the children they father will go a long way towards helping many of these women care for their children.
Among his conclusions, he states:
If we believe the survey, most of the women seeking to abort here did so, not because they were triumphantly exercising their “power to choose,” but because they felt like–given the circumstances–they had no other realistic choice. Abortion forces on them a cruel, violent, destructive option that does little to solve their basic social or economic problems, problems, which may, in part, themselves be a consequence of Roe’s forced cultural transformation.
 

 

#### Why Roe Said what it did
Here is a link to "41 Years Later: Why Roe Said What It Did," Justin Buckley Dyer's summary of Clarke Forsythe's book, Abuse of Discretion on the Library of Law and Liberty web page.
Forsythe, a man who has spent his life for pro-life causes, makes a strong case for returning the issue back to American legislatures and renewing the public debate about the “foundation for equal dignity and human flourishing in our democratic republic.” As Forsythe shows in Abuse of Discretion, that debate has been stunted and skewed by a badly reasoned decision imprudently rendered by an inept Court with disastrous political consequences that continue to haunt us today.
HT Janet Smith

#### Why UFL?
Frank Beckwith notes the following article: "The Great Conservative Mistake," by Mark Bauerlein. This may seem off topic, since being pro-life isn't about being conservative or liberal, but I think it applies to pro-life faculty matatis mutandis. Our job is to do scholarship well. Our successes will be in pointing out the bad scholarship of those who promote abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide in the academy and among students, not in labeling them, no matter how accurate the labels are! If we can point out their "ncompetence" and "ignorance" we've gone a long way to fulfilling our primary avocation--scholarship on behalf of life.

 

#### Will federally-mandated contraceptive coverage reduce abortion?
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) Women’s Preventive Services Study Committee recommended that health insurers cover “the full range of Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity” without co-pays or deductibles for patients in a report issued today.  The report can be found here. FDA approved contraception includes the IUD, “morning-after” pills, and the abortion-inducing drug Ella. The IOM report is expected to have great weight with federal health officials as they establish the requirements of insurance policies under what has become popularly known as Obamacare.

Supporters of universal funding for contraception argue that the number of abortions will be reduced with greater access to contraception. For example, in a news release regarding the IOM report, Sarah Brown, CEO of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy stated, “The IOM recommendations underscore what we have known for decades—that access to affordable and effective contraception improves health, shrinks costs to the individual and society, reduces abortion, and helps to promote stronger families.” 

Yet the evidence that greater access to contraception reduces abortion is mixed at best.  According to a study by researchers at the Guttmacher Institute (historically the research affliate of Planned Parenthood Federation), “Forty-six percent of women seeking abortions had not used a contraceptive method in the month they conceived, mainly because of perceived low risk of pregnancy and concerns about contraception (cited by 33% and 32% of nonusers, respectively). Only 8.1% of all women obtaining abortions had never used contraception. Only 2.1% of all women who had never used contraception did not know where to obtain contraception. Rachel Jones et al, Contraceptive Use Among Women Obtaining Abortions in 2001-2001, at 34 Persp. on Repro. and Sexual Health (Nov. Dec. 2002).

An international study confirmed that abortions rates increased in the United States with increased used of contraception. “In seven countries—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Turkey, Tunisia and Switzerland—abortion incidence declined as prevalence of modern contraceptive use rose. In six others—Cuba, Denmark, Netherlands, the United States, Singapore and the Republic of Korea—levels of abortion and contraceptive use rose simultaneously.” Cicely Marston and John Cleland, Relationships between Contraception and Abortion: A Review of the Evidence, Fam. Plan. Perspec. (Mar. 2003).

In 2006, when the Guttmacher Institute issued a report card ranking the 50 states by how aggressively they promote contraceptives, the embarrassing fact emerged that New York, California and other states receiving the highest grades also had some of the highest abortion rates in the country; some states ranked near the bottom by Guttmacher, such as Kansas and the Dakotas, have the lowest abortion rates.  A study of public funding for contraceptive, sterilization, and contraceptive services can be found here.

A well documented fact sheet on the myth of reduced abortions through contraception can be found on the USCCB website.

#### William E. May, RIP
William E. May, moral theologian and UFL member, has died at the age of 87. He was a long-time professor at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., holding the Michael J. McGivney Chair in Moral Theology. His contribution to moral theology was substantial and influential. He was the recipient of UFL's 2012 Rupert and Timothy Smith Award for Distinguished Contributions to Pro-Life Scholarship.

#### William May to be plenary speaker at 2012 UFL Conference
I am delighted to report that Dr. William E. May has agreed to be a plenary speaker at the 2012 University Faculty for Life Conference to be held June 1-2, 2012 at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Mark you calendars to attend our annual meeting now.

Dr. May is emeritus Michael J. McGivney Professor of Moral Theology at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he taught the academic years from 1991 through 2008 after teaching for 20 years at The Catholic University of America. He is the author of more than a dozen books including Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human Life ( 2d ed., Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2008) and, with Ronald Lawler OFM Cap and Joseph Boyle, Catholic Sexual Ethics (rev. and enlarged ed. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1998). He has also published more than 240 essays in scholarly journals. His personal autobiography is Standing with Peter: A Lay Moral Theologian’s Reflections on God’s Loving Providence (Bethune, SC: Requiem Press, 2006).   

Professor May, at the appointment of Pope John Paul II, served on the International Theological Commission from 1986 through 1997. Pope John Paul also appointed him a “peritus” for the 1987 Synod of Bishops on the vocation and mission of the lay faithful in the Church and in the world. In September 2003 he was appointed a consultor to the Congregation for the Clergy. May has been a Visiting Professor at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences located in Arlington, VA and at the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College. 

Professor May has received the Cardinal Wright Award from the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Medal from James Cardinal Hickey, the Paul Ramsey Award for Outstanding Contributions to Bioethics from the Center for Bioethics and Culture, and the St. Dominic Medal from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. The Culture of Life Foundation has named an annual lecture series “The William E. May Award for Promoting Ethics and the Human Person.”
  
 Since 1958 he has been married to Patricia Keck May. They are the parents of seven children.

#### Winter 2019 issue of ProVita is now available
The Winter 2019 issue of ProVita, the newsletter of University Faculty for Life, is now available at this link. Thanks to Margaret Hughes for her editorial work on the newsletter.

Among other things, the newsletter contains information about the upcoming University Faculty for Life conference on June 6-7, 2019 at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago.

#### Winter/Spring 2018 issue of ProVita is available
The Winter/Spring issue of ProVita, the newsletter of University Faculty for Life, is available here. Thanks again to Margaret Hughes for her editorial work!!!

#### Wisconsin Budget Redirects Funds away from Planned Parenthood
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker recently signed a budget bill which redirects $1 million in state and federal family planning funds away from Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin toward other providers of family planning services.  According to  LifeNews.com , “in 2010 Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin received more than $18 million in federal and state family planning funds that it claims has reduced abortions. However, the abortion business did 5,439 abortions in 2009, a 56% increase from 2008. Three of the nine Planned Parenthood centers in the state do abortions and the other six make referrals for abortions.”  These facts call to mind Richard Stith’s June 25th post regarding the conflict of interest of a women’s clinic, which provides contraceptive services and pregnancy counseling, also providing abortion services.    Thankfully Wisconsin’s very pro-life governor is moving in the right direction.  There are still tax dollars supporting Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin, but this is a start.  And perhaps other state budgets will be moving toward the defunding that is already happening in Wisconsin, Kansas, Indiana, New Hampshire, and possibly Texas.  See this Milwaukee JSOnline article for further details.

 Maybe the growing unpopularity of Planned Parenthood following the controversial operations of  Live Action is having good effect.  See Janet Smith’s defense of this group’s tactics in the latest edition of First Things as well as Christopher Tollefson’s criticism of the group’s actions in Public Discourse.

#### Wisconsin Ultrasound Law
Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin recently signed into law a bill known as Sonya's Law (Act 37) that requires an ultrasound before an abortion. The law also requires that the doctor have "admitting privileges" at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic.

Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and others are challenging the law in court. The "admitting privileges" portion of the law is currently under temporary injunction. The ultrasound provision is in full force. The court hearing will be on November 25, according to Wisconsin Right to Life.

#### Wisconsin's Unborn Child Protection Act
Wisconsin's Unborn Child Protection Act gives the state "the legal authority to assist substance-addicted, pregnant women with their addiction, thus protecting both the mothers and their unborn children." (The quote is from an article noting a press release issued by Wisconsin's Attorney General; the article is available here.)

The Wisconsin statute was held unconstitutional by a federal district court judge in April 2017 and the same judge enjoined enforcement of the statute pending the appeal. The court of appeals refused to stay the district court's injunction pending an appeal.

Wisconsin recently won an important victory in the case. The state, arguing that "the 'epidemic crisis' of prenatal substance abuse poses a substantial challenge for the States as they seek to carry out their sovereign responsibility of protecting children from either dying prematurely or being born with addictions, birth defects, or long-term health problems,"  sought a stay of the lower court's injunction. On July 7, 2017, the US Supreme Court stayed the lower court's decision pending consideration of the statute's constitutionality by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Such an action by the Supreme Court is relatively uncommon and suggests that the federal district court's decision may not ultimately be upheld on appeal.

#### Women, Abortion, and the Brain
Here is a link to a article by Evelyn Birge Vitz and Paul Vitz on "Women, Abortion, and the Brain." http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/09/1657 The article discusses the idea that "the hard-wiring of the brain may explain many women's disturbing post-abortion feelings."

Richard M.

#### Work, Women and Babies
There have been several news stories this week about a decision by a New York federal district court judge in EEOC v. Bloomberg.  The case involved claims by the EEOC on behalf of 78 women that Bloomberg LP (the international news organization) engaged in illegal sex and pregnancy discrimination.  In ruling in favor of the company, the court noted that Bloomberg paid well and in return expected employees to treat their work as "their first obligation."  “[T]here are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences” noted the judge.  

Commentators have characterized the opinion as "tough luck for working moms" and "a throwback that reinforced outdated attitudes toward women and corporate culture."  Defenders of the opinion have called it "common sense" and "realistic." 

This case raises an interesting and difficult question for many of us in the prolife movement.  Should society accomodate the unequal impact of childbearing on men and women, and if so how? Some see this as a non-issue in a chaste society in which every child is conceived within marriage, but even in such a society, some women will need (and others choose) to remain in the work force to contribute to the economic support of their families.  The organization, Feminists for Life, has one set of responses, but other prolife organizations respond differently.  

Clearly this question lies at the heart of Justices O'Connor's comment in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that "[t]he ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives."  It also is the foundation of Justice Ginsburg's belief that the true constitutional foundation for the right to abortion lies in equal protection.

If we are to persuade both the courts and a larger majority of our fellow citizens that abortion can and should be illegal except in a small set of circumstances, we must have some coherent and attractive answer to the claim that abortion is necessary to ensure women's equality and protect their ability to participate in public life.  Otherwise I fear many will continue to believe that abortion is evil, but must be tolerated as a necessary evil.

#### World-wide impact of sex-selective abortion
Ross Douthat has a good review of a new book on the genesis and impact of sex-selective abortion in the NYT today.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/opinion/27douthat.html?ref=todayspaper

#### Yale Social Justice Center denies membership to pro life group m
Dwight Hall, a justice and peace Center on the campus of Yale University denied Choose Life At Yale (CLAY) membership because some people on campus were claiming that a pro-life position is contrary to social justice because it is contrary to gender equity. See this National Catholic Register article for details.

#### Yamanaka Nobel Prize
Two researches,  John Gurdon from the UK and Shinya Yamanaka from Japan, who pioneered the production of stem cells used for treatments out of adult cells have won the Nobel Prize (BBC.com). Yamanaka was motivated by ethical concerns over embryonic stem cell research. He was once quoted as saying, “When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized there was such a small difference between it and my daughters,  I thought, we can’t keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way.” ("Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells: The Ethical Embryonic Alternative." LifeNews.com)

#### Yet another item on the Obama contraception mandate
Here is Prof. Christopher Tollefsen: "Contraception and Healthcare Rights." I think it's pretty carefully thought out and argued (one possible quibble based on a quick first reading would be with the "great gravity and urgency" criterion, though that probably has nothing to do with the point about contraception).

And I think Tollefsen implicitly points to another way (I mentioned a few in posts last week) in which there are connections between the contraception issue and the abortion issue. The more contraception is seen as part of normal "health care," the more we are confusing desires with needs. The more we confuse desires with needs, the more we begin to think it might be intelligible to speak of a "right" to abortion.

For more on the problems with modern (mis)understandings of "rights," see the section of John Paul II's Evangelium Vitae entitled "'Am I my brother's keeper?' (Gen 4:9): a perverse idea of freedom."

And for more on the problems with today's (mis)understandings of "medicine" or "health care," see scientist, physician, and philosopher Dr. Leon Kass's work. I'm thinking especially of part II of his his 1988 Toward a More Natural Science, though all of his work is worthwhile; see also his later Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity. (I used to use TMNS when teaching medical ethics; I switched to LLDD after it came out because it's more up-to-date on some practical issues.)

#### Young v. UPS Roundtable
The United States Supreme Court will soon be ruling on the question of when employers must accommodate the needs of pregnant employees under the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas joined with 22 other prolife organizations and Judicial Education Project in filing an amicus brief urging a broad interpretation. Watch the video to understand the arguments in the case. Comments by the Teresa Collett, President of UFL and the Director of the Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas begin at the 45 minute marker. You can read the brief at http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/12-1226_tsac_23_Pro_Life_Organizations_and_Judicial_Education_Project.pdf.

 HT Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas.

### Pages

#### About Us
URL: https://uffl.org/about-us/

#### Annotated Bibliography
To submit an article for posting on UFFL's annotated bibliography, pending review, please contact us.Bibliography on Pro-life Issues Stem-Cell ResearchMothers Harbor Fetal Stem Cells: A Boost for Stem Cell Research - Megan Rauscher      Human CloningLegally Valid Informed Consent: Individual Testimony before the New Jersey State Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Ethical and Public Policy Considerations - Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D.Testimony On Canadian Bill C-13 ("Assisted Human Reproduction Act") - Dianne N. IrvingUFFL Letter on Canadian Stem Cell Research - Dianne N. IrvingCloning: Legal, Medical, Ethical, and Social Issues. Hearing before the Subcommittee on Health and Environment of the Committee on Commerce of the U.S. House of Representatives. February 12, 1998 - Dianne N. IrvingTestimony on Cloning Before House of Lords - Dianne N. IrvingAnalysis: Parts I and II: Stem Cells that Become Embryos: Implications for the NIH Guidelines on Stem Cell Research, The NIH Stem Cell Report, Informed Consent, and PatientSafety in Clinical Trials - Dianne N. IrvingA One-Act Drama: The Early Human Embryo, Scientific Myths and Scientific Facts; Implications for Ethics and Public Policy - Dianne N. IrvingUFFL Letter of Concerns About the Human Cloning Ban - Dianne N. Irving"Playing God by Manipulating Man: Facts and Frauds of Human Cloning". - Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D.Appendix of Church Teachings containing direct quotations on human cloning and human embryonic stem cell research - Dianne N. Irving, M.A.,      Abortion"Karol Wojtyla on 'Humanae vitae,'" - John M. Grondelski, ANGELICUM, 81 (2004): 51-63.What is Bioethics? ('Quid est bioethics') - Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D.Which Ethics for Science and Public Policy? - Dianne N. IrvingWhen Does a Human Being Begin? 'Scientific Myths andScientific Facts - Dianne N. IrvingThe Impact of "Scientific Misinformation" on Other Fields: Philosophy, Theology, Biomedical Ethics, Public Policy - Dianne N. IrvingAccountability in Research Using Persons with Mental Illness - Dianne N. IrvingThe Woman and the Physician Facing Abortion: The Role of Correct Science in the Formation of Conscience and the Moral Decision Making Process - Dianne N. IrvingAbortion: Correct Application of Natural Law Theory - Dianne N. IrvingScientific and Philosophical Expertise: An Evaluation of the Arguments on "Personhood" - Dianne N. Irving"Emergency Contraception" and its Possible Abortifacient Effects - Dianne N. IrvingPsychiatric Research: Reality Check: An Open Letter To Persons With Mental Illness and Their Families - Dianne N. IrvingThe Impact of International Bioethics on "The Sanctity ofLife Ethics" and the Ability of OB/GYNs to Practice According to Conscience - Dianne N. Irving       End-of-Life/Assisted Suicide/EuthanasiaJustice, Rhetoric, and Law: Reflections on Latimer v. Regina - William MathieDecision at The End of Life: The Use and Abuse of the Concept of Futility - Edmund PellegrinoEuthanasia: An Irresistible Wave? - J.C. Willke, M.D.Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia - J.C. Willke, M.D.Sentiment, Science, and Thanatos in the Work of Walker Percy - Francis E. Zapatka

#### Contact Us
Please send membership dues, donations and written correspondence to:Margaret Hughes, Ph.D.UFFL Secretary & ProVita EditorUniversity Faculty for LifeThomas Aquinas College231 Main StreetNorthfield, MA 01360 Email: provita.editor@gmail.com  Corporate Address:University Faculty for Life120 New NorthGeorgetown UniversityWashington, DC 20057

#### Home
Multi-disciplinary Analysesof Threats and RemediesWe focus on life's beginning and natural end.MembershipFellowship, Dialogue,Research, PublicationFellowship Newsletter, Annual Conferences; Peer-reviewed Publications in open-access Life and Learning. Join the DialogLife is Love's Standard"...everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God." 1 John 4:7ProVita Newsletter				
													
													
									Who We Are		University Faculty for Life was founded in 1989 to promote research, dialogue and publication by faculty who respect the value of human life from inception to natural death. Abortion, infanticide and euthanasia are highly controversial topics, but we believe they should not be resolved by the shouting, news bites and slogans that have dominated popular presentations. Because we believe the evidence is on our side, we would like to assure a hearing for our views in the academic community.			Our Focus 		Our three basic issues (abortion, infanticide and euthanasia) have many dimensions -- political, social, legal, medical, biological, psychological, ethical and religious. We do not have a detailed statement of orthodoxy; rather we have provided an interdisciplinary forum in which scholars can discuss these issues.			Pro Vita Newsletter		Since 1990 the UFFL has published a quarterly newsletter named Pro Vita. Beginning in 1991 it has held an annual Conference at various university campuses, and, since 1992 the Conference proceedings have been published in book form and distributed to UFFL members and hundreds of university libraries. We have sent letters to public figures who misstate biological facts and submitted several amicus curiae briefs on the life issues to the Supreme Court.The media regularly show pro-life people as mindless zealots. We hope our presence will change that image. We also believe that academicians united on these issues can encourage others to speak out in their own schools and communities.					
					"Life is too precious, 
					do not
					destroy it."
					
				- Mother Theresa			Goals of the UFFL					
		
				 GOAL
					
				To provide a forum to foster multidisciplinary dialogue and collaboration among professors concerned about human life. This includes a newsletter, an annual conference and published proceedings.			
		
				 GOAL
					
				To educate the community about life issues and the reasons behind pro-life positions. To this end we encourage and disseminate scholarly research by means of conferences, symposia, published proceedings, newsletters, book notices and reviews.			
		
				 GOAL
					
				To make available academic materials and resources for pro-life groups, including a web site, bibliographies and videotapes of conferences and lectures. A directory of members will indicate those prepared to speak on these life issues.

#### Life and Learning Annual Conference
"Protecting the Vulnerable at Life's Beginning & Natural End"		36th Annual Life and Learning Conference June 5-6, 2026University of St. Thomas Houston, Texas 			Call for Paper Proposals		One paragraph Proposals for Papers are due March 24th for Priority Consideration.This topic invites presentations from every discipline on direct threats to human life, e.g., types of abortion, invitro fertilization, embryo banks, harvesting, embryonic experimentation, physician assisted suicide and hospice mercy killings.  The topic also invites explorations into the cultural, religious, historical, psychological, and political values that betray love, trivialize human dignity, and prioritize profit or ease over human life.To submit a proposal: Please place "UFFL Proposal" as your message title and email to rmlemmons@stthomas.edu.  Be sure your proposal includes your title, professional affiliation, and email address. Excellent conference papers are eligible for publication in our open-access and peer-reviewed journal, Life and Learning, at UFFL.org.  			Registration		Heads up! You must register for each day of attendance. Registration options include choosing your protein for that evening's buffet or choosing to forgo dinner and that day's reception. N.B. Breakfast and lunch are not included in the registration fee but are available at the university's cafeteria. It accepts cash & credit cards.								
							
									Register Online
					
									Housing		On-campusing housing is available but limited. Linens are included but not soap, shampoo, and other toiletries. Due to a variety of factors, there is a possibility of additional housing becoming available. Consult the lead local organizer, Dr. David Deavel at david.deavel@stthom.edu for specifics.			Campus		University of St. Thomas3800 Montrose BoulevardHouston, TX 77006					
			
									
						Questions?					
						Contact us for more details					
					
						Contact the UFFL

#### Life and Learning II
Life and Learning II - 1992KEYNOTE ADDRESSMoral Arguments, Political Debate, and the Protection of Human LifeWilliam J. Byron, S.J.FEATURED SPEAKERThe Beginning and Development of Human Life- and -The Physiological Substrate of the Mind in Early Human LifeJerome Lejeune, M.D.RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVESThe Sounds of Silence: Abortion and the New Testament CanonMichael GormanWhat Is Respect for the Sanctity of Human Life?Thomas LoughranThe Evangelicals and the Prolife PositionRobert O'BannonSOCIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVESDifferential Impact of Abortion on Adolescents and AdultsWanda Franz and David ReardonThe Role of Social Science in Shaping "Humanist" SexualityMary ShivanandanThe Place of Experiential Learning in Education in Human SexualityHanna Klaus, M.D.Abortion and Cultural InterpretationKeith CassidyNew Conceptual Lenses Through Which to View the Fear Which Fuels Fetal Tissue ResearchMary Jane OwenA Study of the Legal Framework, the Ideas and Attitudes of Professional Care-Givers and the Elderly toward Terminal Care and EuthanasiaL. L. Deveber, F. Henry, R. Nadeau, J.D., E. Cassidy, I. Gentles, and G. BierlingSCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVESCurrent and Future Developments in Experimental TherapiesMaria Michejda, M.D.Scientific and Philosophical Expertise: An Evaluation of the Arguments on "Personhood"Dianne Nutwell IrvingOn the Use of Nutrition and Hydration: a Second OpinionKevin O'Rourke, O.P.Abortion: "To Be or Not To Be?" A Nation DividedBarbara BraunThe Philosophical Underpinnings of the Prolife MovementPaul M. Quay, S.J.Anencephaly -- Organ Transplantation?Paul A. Byrne, M.D., Joseph C. Evers, M.D., and Richard G. Nilges, M.D. 

#### Life and Learning III
Life and Learning III - 1993REASONABLE DISCOURSE IN THE PUBLIC FORUMThe Divided Soul of Liberalism- and -What To Do When the Jig Is UpRichard John NeuhausPluralism, Tolerance, and Abortion RightsFrancis J. BeckwithAbortion and the "Feminine Voice"- and -Postscript, 1993Celia Wolf-DevineRe-Visiting Eden: Will We Make the Same Mistake Twice?Patricia Wesley, M.D. PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVESDistortions of the WillJohn J. Conley, S.J.Jean-Paul Sartre and the Abortion DebateWilma von Jess DEFINING PERSONHOODSome Theological and Biological Considerations on the Origin of Human LifeRobert H. O'BannonThe Deconstruction of Self in Alzheimer's Disease: a Constructionist ViewSteven R. SabatThe Personhood of the Human EmbryoJohn F. CrosbySOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVESAgency Perceptions of the Decision to ParentJ. Ajzensat, E. Bierling, and E. CassidyTextbook Coverage of AbortionDonald Schneller and M. Zakari Kano LEGAL AND MEDICAL ISSUESThe Brain Stem in Brain Death: a Critical ReviewPaul A. Byrne, M.D., and Richard J. Nilges, M.D.Nuremberg Revisited: Abortion as a Human Rights IssueJohn J. Hunt, M.D.When a Doctor Refuses to Participate in AbortionRonald G. Connolly, M.D.RU-486 -- Miracle or Cure?J. C. Willke, M.D. 

#### Life and Learning IV
Life and Learning IV - 1994KEYNOTE ADDRESSBecoming a Pro-Woman, Pro-Life Persuader: A New Approach to the Abortion DebateFrederica Mathewes-Green CONTEMPORARY CURRENTSA Pride of Bootless Friends: Some Melancholy Reflections on the Current State of the Pro-Life Movement- and -A Season of Turning in the Pro-Life Cause: Strengths and HopesHadley ArkesThe Movement and its Message: Pro-Life Educational Campaigns and their CriticsKeith Cassidy THE QUESTION OF EUTHANASIALibertarian EuthanasiaJohn J. Conley, S.J.Upcoming Euthanasia InitiativesRobert Spitzer, S.J.Counterfactual Reasoning, Reciprocity, and EuthanasiaJohn M. Dolan THE QUESTION OF ABORTIONA Tale of Two Countries: American and German Attitudes to Abortion Since World War IIJohn J. HuntThe Sundered Argument Against AbortionPeter NyikosAbortion Laws and ExceptionsStephen D. SchwarzIgnorance of Fetal Status as a Justification of Abortion: A Critical AnalysisFrancis J. Beckwith MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVESThe Moral Justification of Prenatal DiagnosisJudith A. Boss"Conceptual Transfer" in Bioethics: Abortion, Human Embryo Research, and Psychiatric ResearchDianne N. IrvingTowards a Model of Fertility IntegrationRichard J. Fehring RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVESThe Teaching of the Early Church As Regards AbortionGerald BonnerAbortion and the Biblical "Divine Feminine"Michael J. Gorman SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVESSociological Consequences of AbortionDonald SchnellerWhy Link Pro-Gay and Pro-Choice Activism?Richard R. Roach, S.J.I Will Still Learn to Fly: Reflections on Un-Married Motherhood in CanadaGerald Bierling, Elizabeth Cassidy, and Elise Carter

#### Life and Learning IX
Life and Learning IX - 1999 CURRENT ISSUESHuman Cloning: Never and Why NotJ. L. A. GarciaAbortion Risk Factors: An Avenue for New Pro-Life/Pro-Woman LawsDavid C. ReardonThe Value of Life and its Bearing on Three Issues of Medical EthicsPeter F. Ryan, S.J.Ending Renal Dialysis: Ethical Issues in Refusing Life-Sustaining TreatmentKevin E. Miller FUNDAMENTAL MORAL THEORYWhy Persons Have DignityJohn F. CrosbyAgainst Capital Punishment: A Teleological ArgumentJohn J. Conley, S.J.The Right to Life and the Natural LawMitchell KalpakgianIs In Vitro Fertilization in accord with a Symbolic Concept of Natural Law?W. Jerome Bracken, C. P. LEGAL AND POLITICAL PERSPECTIVESAbortion: What Did the Supreme Court Do in Roe v. Wade?Charles E. RiceMembership: Reflections on Abortion and ImmigrationMichael ScaperlandaDisagreement Without Debate: The Republican Party Platform and the Human Life Amendment PlankFrancis J. BeckwithThe Critical Influence of the Prospective Father on Abortion-Decision MakingThomas W. StrahanDiscrimination Against Pro-Lifers in Higher Education? A Preliminary SurveyEdward F. GehringerHamlet and Human Rights: Is the Choice to Be or Not to Be Protected under International Law?Winston L. Frost HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVESInterpreting the Pro-Life Movement: Recurrent Themes and Recent TrendsKeith CassidyHoratio Robinson Storer, M.D. and the Physicians' Crusade Against AbortionFrederick N. DyerOut of Respect for Life: Nazi Abortion Policy in the Eastern Occupied TerritoriesJohn HuntThe Empty Promise of ContraceptionTeresa R. Wagner MEDICAL PERSPECTIVESAn Argument for Continuing a Pregnancy Where the Fetus Is Discovered to be AnencephalicBridget CampionMultifetal Pregnancy Reduction (MFPR): The Psychology of Desperation and the Ethics of JustificationElizabeth Ring-Cassidy LITERARY PERSPECTIVESAdolescent Fiction on Abortion: Developing a Paradigm and Pedagogic Responses from Literature Spanning Three DecadesJeff KolozeWriting a Play about Virtue: The Way to Evolution ValleyBernadette Waterman Ward .

#### Life and Learning V
Life and Learning V - 1995POLITICAL PERSPECTIVESDemographic Policy and Ethical PrincipleJohn J. Conley, S.J.Democracy and Abortion,Monte Harris Liebman, M.D.You Say You Want a Revolution? Pro-life Philosophy and FeminismAnne M. MaloneyAbortion and Political CompromiseChristopher WolfeThe Chattanooga Story: How One City Reduced its Abortion RateRobert H. O'Bannon RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVESBioethics: The Twilight of Christian HippocratismNigel M. de S. CameronPope Paul VI -- Modern Day ProphetWilliam F. Colliton, Jr., M.D.The Use and Abuse of the Bible in the Abortion DebateMichael J. GormanHealing Post-Abortion TraumaSusan Stanford-Rue LITERARY PERSPECTIVESRight-to-Life in Literary Theory: The Silence ScreamsJeff KolozeOne Poet's Journey as Artist, Citizen, and Father toward the Right to LiveCarl A. WinderlLEGAL PERSPECTIVESNo Law Can Give Me The Right to Do What is WrongJudge Joseph W. MoylanAbortion Malpractice: Exploring the Safety of Legal AbortionTeresa Stanton Collett, Esq.The Critical Need for Social Science Research for the Public Policy Battle for LifeClark D. Forsythe, Esq.Abortion Malpractice: When Patient Needs and Abortion Practice CollideVincent M. Rue QUESTIONS AT LIFE'S ENDEffects of Hospice Interventions on Behaviors, Discomfort, and Physical Complications of End-Stage Dementia Nursing Home ResidentsChristine R. Kovach, Sarah A. Wilson, and Patricia E. NoonanNew Dimensions to EuthanasiaEugene F. Diamond, M.D. THE PRO-LIFE MOVEMENTShifting the Focus in the Abortion DebateFrancis J. BeckwithThe Historical Roots of the Pro-Life Movement: Assessing the Pro-Choice AccountKeith CassidyMax Scheler's Principle of Moral Solidarity and its Implications for the Pro-Life MovementJohn F. Crosby

#### Life and Learning VI
Life and Learning VI - 1996CONTEMPORARY CURRENTS: EUTHANASIA AND INFANTICIDEThe Euthanasia Debate TodayRichard M. DoerflingerThe Suicide of History, Judicial Misuse of History in Compassion in DyingDwight G. Duncan and Peter LubinFacing Up to InfanticideJ. Bottum POPULATION QUESTIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTSMore People, Greater Wealth, More Resources, Healthier EnvironmentJulian L. SimonTwo Views on PopulationJames CareyHealth-Care Reform: A Human Rights IssueMarie A. Conn PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVESProblems of Cooperation in an Abortive CultureJohn J. Conley, S.J.The Estrangement of Persons from their BodiesJohn F. CrosbyIntentions in Medical EthicsJ. L. A. Garcia QUESTIONS OF SEXUAL ETHICSContraception and Abortion: Fruits of the Same TreeRichard J. FehringThree in One FleshMary A. NicholasSexuality Education -- Developing and Implementing a Peer Program in College Residence HallsMary Lee O'Connell INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVESInduced Abortion as a Violation of Conscience of the WomanThomas W. StrahanBreaking the Linguistic Permafrost of Current American Anti-Life Fiction: A Guide for Students of LiteratureJeff KolozePro-Life Direct Action Campaigns: A Survey of Scholarly and Media InterpretationsKeith Cassidy THE CULTURE OF LIFE AND THE CULTURE OF DEATHThe Politics of a Culture of LifeKevin E. MillerEdith Stein -- Her Contribution to a Culture of LifeSr. M. Stanislaus, O.P.The Anti-Life Family Conferences of the United NationsMercedes Arzu WilsonConfronting the Language of the Culture of DeathWilliam BrennanAbortion and Nazism: Is There Really a Connection?John Hunt 

#### Life and Learning VII
Life and Learning VII - 1997 
I. CONTEMPORARY CURRENTS

Where is the Pro-Life Movement Today?Mary Ellen Bork
Why Can't We Love Them Both?John and Barbara Willke
Adoption: Not an Easy Option- and -Adoption: A Personal PerspectiveTeresa LaMonica

II. PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Coherence and Priority: Evaluating the Consistent EthicJohn J. Conley, S.J.
The Human Person Exists in Freedom Under the TruthJohn F. Crosby
Absolute Autonomy and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Putting a Bad Idea Out of its MiseryFrancis J. Beckwith
The Incompatibility of Contraception with Respect for LifeKevin E. Miller

III. MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVES

Mournful Numbers: Quantitative Tools for Combating the Overpopulation MythJ. T. Maloy
Abortion, Breast Cancer, and IdeologyJoel Brind, M.D.
The "Morning-After Pill": Another Step Towards Depersonalization?Hanna Klaus, M.D.

IV. RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY

Catholic Retreat for Post-Abortion Women and Men: Results and Theological ReflectionsWilliam S. Kurz, S.J.
Faith, Suffering, and the Prolife MovementSidney Callahan

V. HISTORICAL AND LITERARY PERSPECTIVES

Compulsory Sterilization, Euthanasia, and Propaganda: The Nazi ExperienceJay LaMonica
Abortion and the Nuremberg Prosecutors: A Deeper AnalysisJohn Hunt
Principles of American Life: An Archaeology of the Virus of Negation of Inalienable Rights and its Antidote in American LiteratureJeff Koloze
The Road to Roe: Cultural Change and the Growth of Acceptance of Abortion prior to 1973Keith Cassidy

#### Life and Learning VIII
Life and Learning VIII - 1998 I. INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES Life's Dominion in Canada: A Legal SurveyDavid M. BrownThe Problematic Moral Arguments in the Sue Rodriguez CaseGilbert E. BrodieAbortion and the Crisis of Liberal Justice: George Grant on the Meaning of Roe v. WadeWilliam MathieIs Abortion an International Human Right?Winston L. Frost II. SUPREME COURT FOCUSThe Supreme Court and Abortion: Legal Logic and Legal FictionsD. J. DooleyDeconstructing Roe v. Wade's Birth Wall: Opportunities and DangersRichard StithRoe v. Wade: Effects of Twenty-Five Years of Constitutionalized Abortion on DemandLynn D. WardleBreakfasting with ChampionsRobert G. Morrison III. THE RIGHT-TO-LIFE MOVEMENTAbortion: A Failure to CommunicatePaul SwopeAbortion, Self-Love, and Virtue: On the Work of the Caring FoundationMichael PakalukPrenatal Care: Hope, Concern, and ContradictionsMary A. Nicholas, M.D. IV. LITERARY AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVESResolution of a Controversial Issue in the Writing Class: Daedalus Software, Discussion, and Collaborative Writing on AbortionJeff KolozeAbortion as MetaphorJohn J. Conley, S.J.Abortion as a Sacrament: Mimetic Desire and Sacrifice in Sexual PoliticsBernadette Waterman Ward V. PHILOSOPHICAL AND RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVESSuicide Is Not a Private ChoiceDavid NovakA Prolegomenon to Any Future Ethics of AbortionJohn C. CalahanThe Life Principles: A Model for Teaching the Philosophy of the Pro-Life MovementRobert J. Spitzer, S.J.College Outreach ProgramFeminists for LifeThe Role of Mercy in a Culture of Life: John Paul II on Capital PunishmentKevin E. MillerIs the Early Embryo a Person?W. Jerome Bracken, C.P. VI. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVESMercy Killing: History and MedicineL. L. de Veber, M.D., F.R.C.P.(C)Perfecting Humankind: A Comparison of Progressive and Nazi Views on Eugenics, Sterilization, and AbortionJohn HuntEuthanasia: Politics and the LawIain T. Benson  

#### Life and Learning X
Life and Learning X - 2000PrefaceAcknowledgmentsI. BioethicsWhat Is "Bioethics"? (Quid est "Bioethics"?)  Dianne N. IrvingDecision at The End of Life: The Use and Abuse >of the Concept of Futility Edmund Pellegrino II. Questions of WorldviewBut Who Are the Innocent? John J. Conley, S.J. Taking Abortion Seriously: A Philosophical Critique of the New Prolife Rhetorical Shift Francis J. Beckwith Gaudium et Spes as a Blueprint for the Culture of Life Robert F. GotcherSowing the Wind, Reaping the Whirlwind: From Frederick Taussig’s Abortion: Spontaneous and Induced (1936) to Warren Hern’s Abortion Practice (1984) Samuel W. CalhounLife after Communism: Democracy and Abortion in Eastern Europe and Russia Patrick J. FloodIII. Anthropological and Sociological PerspectivesDoes Premature Intercourse Delay Psychological Maturation?An Analysis of Outcome Data of the 1998-99 Teen STAR ProgramHanna Klaus, M.D. 225Anthropological Differences between Contraception and Natural Family Planning Richard J. Fehring and William Kurz, S.J. Relinquishment of Motherhood: Concept Analysis Teresa La Monica Abortion Practice as a Perpetration-Induced Trauma Rachel M. MacNair The Birth Control Pill: Abortifacient and Contraceptive William Colliton, Jr., M.D. IV. Literary PerspectivesBizarre Fiction on the Right-to-Life Issues Jeff Koloze Sentiment, Science, and Thanatos in the Work of Walker Percy Francis E. ZapatkaSilencing Lorraine Hansberry Bernadette Waterman Ward V. A Global PerspectiveAssisted Suicide and Euthanasia John C. Willke, M.D. 

#### Life and Learning XI
Life and Learning XI - 2001Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted SuicidePhysician Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Current Legal Perspective  Richard MyersEuthanasia: An Irresistible Wave?  C. Willke, M.D. Justice, Rhetoric, and Law: Reflections on Latimer v. Regina William Mathie AbortionThe Constitution and the Common Good: Abortion Rights as a Contradiction of Constitutional Purposes  Robert Araujo, S.J. The Natural Law Philosophy of Lon L. Fuller in contrast to Roe v. Wade and Its Progeny  Thomas W. Strahan  An Alarming Pre-Roe View of Personhood: the 1972 Byrn Decision Samuel Calhoun Mandatory Viability Test: An Underutilized Legislative Approach to Limiting Abortion  Patrick James Flood The Unintended Consequences of Mifepristone: Evidence from the Clinical Trials Paul Sullins Literary and Cultural PerspectivesEuropean Abortion Novels: Documenting a Fidelity to the Milieu  Jeff Koloze  From Counter-Movement to Transforming-Movement? Towards the Crystallization and Dual Chal­lenge of the Consistent Ethic of Life  James R. Kelly  Theological PerspectivesScriptural Foundations for the Pro-Life Position William S. Kurz, S.J.   Familiaris Consortio: The Biblical and Theological Foundation of an Adequate Anthropology  Joseph C. Atkinson  

#### Life and Learning XII
Life and Learning XII - 2002IntroductionSocial and Political Questions“Respect for the Individual: The Foundation of Law” Richard Stith   “Wrong Turn: How the Campaign to Liberate Women Has Betrayed the Culture of Life”   Elizabeth Fox-Genovese  “Cloning and Reproductive Liberty” Francis J. Beckwith “The Median Voter Principle and Advancing the Culture of Life”  John Pisciotta “A Defense of the Neglected Rhetorical Strategy (NRS)”  David C. Reardon  Neo-Natal Questions“The Moral Dilemma of Management Procedures for Ectopic Pregnancy”  Kelly Bowring “Fetal Pain Legislation: Is It Viable?”   Teresa Stanton Collett  Philosophical Perspectives“Delayed Animation: An Ambiguity and Its Abuses”  John J. Conley, S.J.“I Was Once a Fetus: That is Why Abortion is Wrong”  Alexander R. Pruss The Life Issues and the Academy“Duhemian and Augustinian Science and the Crisis in Non-Empirical Knowledge”   P. Moreland “Academic Perceptions of Abortion: A Review of Humanities Scholarship Produced within the Academy”    Jeff Koloze   Questions of Theology and Spirituality“Catholic Appropriation of Biblical Perspectives Regarding Abortion”  William S. Kurz, S.J. “Spiritual Responses to the Regulation of Birth: A Historical Comparison”   Richard J. Fehring and Elizabeth McGraw “We Are a People of Life: Opportunities and Challenges for the Pro-Life Parish”   Patricia F. Sherrod  “Thoughts towards a Clarification of Section #73 of Humanae Vitae”  Damian P. Fedoryka “The Sanctity of Fertility and Coition and its Impact on Contraception, Abortion, and the New Birth Technologies”  Mark Lowery “The Influence of Therapeutic Culture on Abortion Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court”  Thomas W. Strahan   

#### Life and Learning XIII
Life and Learning XIII - 2003Legal QuestionsReflections on “Looking Back on Planned Parenthood v. Casey”  Richard S. Myers A New Assault on Conscience  John J. Conley, S.J.   Perspectives from Psychology and Social ScienceAbortion and Family Formation: Circumstance or Culture?  Paul SullinsHijacking Healing: Pro-Abortion Response to Post-Abortion Stress  Elizabeth Ring-Cassidy Post-Abortion Aftermath: Treatment or Care?   Marcella Colbert   Perspectives from Art and LiteratureThe Interrelated Defense of Abortion and Pornography in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale  Anne Barbeau Gardiner  Abortion and Rap Music: A Literary Study of the Lyrics of Representative Rap Songs  Jeff Koloze   Theological PerspectivesAn Analysis of the Majority Report (“Responsible Parenthood”) and its Recommendations on Abortion, Sterilization, and Contraception   Richard J. Fehring“To Be as God”:  Scriptural Links between Abortion and Natural Family Planning   William S. Kurz, S.J.  Philosophical PerspectivesMaking the Best Argument for Unborn Life: Understanding the Racist and Sexist Assumptions of Abortion  Ben Voth Pro-Choice “Personhood”: An Abortive Concept  Andrew J. Peach   Is the Fetus a Fetish?  Bernadette Waterman Ward  Thirty Years of Roe. v. Wade  Wanda Franz   

#### Life and Learning XIV
Life and Learning XIV - 2004Preface Acknowledgments Legal PerspectivesStatutory Responses to "Wrongful Birth" and "Wrongful Life" Actions  William Duncan  Reflections on the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Case  Richard S. Myers What Happens to the Victims of Compromise Abortion Laws? Damian P. Fedoryka  Political PerspectivesAbortion, Thinking Americans, and Judicial Politics  Ronald Rychlak  Remembering King Baudouin, Witness to Life  John J. Conley, S.J. Literary PerspectivesStealing Fire from the Sky: Transvaluating Religion in the Service of Abortion  Anne Barbeau Gardiner Poetry on the Right-to-Life Issues of Abortion, Infanticide, and Euthanasia: Commentary from Scansion of the Poems  Jeff Koloze Response by Anne Barbeau GardinerPhilosophical PerspectivesAm I My Brother's Keeper? The Role of Conscience in John Paul II's Moral Philosophy   Laura L. Garcia  Does Personhood Begin with Conscious Desires?   Christopher Kaczor Abortion and Parental Obligation   Andrew Peach  Response by R. Mary Hayden Lemmons Medical PerspectivesThe Medicalization of Death & Dying   Marcella Colbert, M.D.  The Morning-After Pill: The Dangers of Over-the-Counter Availability   Hanna Klaus, M.D. Linguistic PerspectivesLogical Fallacies in the Literature on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research   Jeff Koloze The Use of Force in a Culture of Death   Damian P. Fedoryka    About Our Contributors UFL Boards 

#### Life and Learning XIX
LIfe and Learning XIX -- 2009Entire Proceedings  (Download as a single file)PrefaceCURRENT MORAL PROBLEMSStem Cells and Torture  Gilbert MeilaenderLying for Life? On Delayed Disclosure of Healthcare Limits  Andrew JaspersMore Vulnerable to Exploitation and Abandonment   Richard Stith Right to Life: A Right Beyond Ideology, The Case of Tabaré Vazquez  Mario Ramos-Reyes MORAL ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND MEDICINEIs Breastfeeding the Moral Equivalent of Emergency Contraception in Inducing Early Pregnancy Loss?   Richard J. FehringProfessional Conscientious Objection in Medicine with Attention to Referral   T.A. Cavanaugh Unintended Consequences of the Separation of Sex from Procreation  Hanna Klaus, M.D.   The Orientation of Freedom toward Bodily Integrity: Defending the Oocyte from Extracorporeal Manipulation  Kimberly Henkel PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVESPro-Life Communitarianism and a Metaphysics of Relation  James G. Hanink  Fichte’s Idealism and Natural Rights: A Key to Understanding Seemingly Inconsistent Arguments for Abortion and Euthanasia   Eric Manchester The Difference Between Form and Shape: Why Human Appearance Is Morally Irrelevant  Craig Payne  Retrieval of Fatherhood through a Retrieval of Faith in God the Father  Matthew Lewis Sutton PERSPECTIVES FROM LITERATURE AND RHETORICAbortion in Canadian Literature: Comparisons with American Literature and Canada’s Unique Contributions  Jeff KolozePak Wans4’s “The Dreaming Incubator”: An Application of Western Literary Theories to a Major Work of Korean Fiction  Jeff KolozeThe Coercive Reality behind Pro-Choice Rhetoric: Identifying What "Popular Sovereignty," "Reproductive Freedom," and "Death with Dignity" Demand from Those Who Disagree   Ryan C. MacPherson CULTURAL PERSPECTIVESCatholic Feminist Ethics and the Culture of Death: The Case of Sister Margaret Farley   Anne Barbeau Gardiner"For contributions to the science of racial cleansing": Harry H Laughlin and the American Eugenics Movement   John GerdtzEuthanasia: Hell’s Last Sacrament   Robert C. Cetrulo, J.D.The "Heated Debates" Survey: How Connecting Issues Have an Impact on Opposition to Violence   Rachel M. MacNair Prudence and Telos in Pro-Life Evolution   James R. Kelly About Our ContributorsAcknowledgementsUFL Boards

#### Life and Learning XV
Life and Learning XV - 2005Preface International LawInternational Law and the Right to Life  Richard G. Wilkins and Jacob ReynoldsDefending the Council of Europe's Opposition to Euthanasia  John KeownReply to John Keown  Stephen J. Safranek Rhetoric and ArgumentLeft Unsaid: Deconstructing the Rhetoric of Liberal Feminism's Failure to Comment on the Worth of Women's Lives  Ben VothAbortion Is More Than Murder  Richard Stith Abortion: Why This Issue?  Thomas M. King, S.J. Medical and Nursing PerspectivesFertility Is Not a Disease  Hannah Klaus, M.D.Attitudes, Intentions, and Ethical Stance of Advanced Practice Nursing Students toward Abortion Provision: Part One B Quantitative Findings  Richard Fehring End-of-Life Psychospiritual Pain and Suffering Related to Women Who Have Undergone Induced Abortion(s)  Jean Echlin Sexuality Education Programs for Parents Helping Children Develop a Reverence for Life  Mary Lee O'Connell  Ecclesial PerspectivesBenedict XVI: Prolegomena to a Magisterium for Life  John Conley, S.J. Catholic Pro-Life Teachings in the New Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church  Robert L. Fastiggi"One Just Man Found in Gomorrah" :  Father Morrow vs. the Catholic Bishops of Britain in 1993 Anne Barbeau Gardiner  Clericalization and Impotence of the Pro Life Movement   Damian P. Fedoryka Philosophical and Theological PerspectivesIs It Immoral to be Prudent?   Clark D. Forsythe  Reply to Clarke Forsythe  William Mathie Kevin O'Rourke, O.P. on the Morality of Tube Feeding PVS Patients: A Critique  Mark S. Latkovic Ensoulment Problems  Adrian J. Reimers Reply to Adrian Reimers  John Conley, S.J."Shut Up!" He Explained: How the Effort to Keep Abortion Off the Political Agenda Has Shaped Canadian Politics   William Mathie  Changing the Culture through Politics and the Media: Ellen McCormack's 1976 Presidential Campaign   Diane Gilroy The Saga of the South Carolina Abortion Clinic Regulation Act  Peter Nyikos  Twentieth-Century Science Fiction Literature and the Right to Life Issues of Abortion, Infanticide, and Euthanasia   Jeff Koloze  Science and the Culture of Death  Edward Krause  Are You Pro-life When Life Hurts?   Andrew P. Porter Economic Research into the Abortion Decision: A Literature Review and a New Direction  Andrew Yuengert and Joel Fetzer  About Our ContributorsAcknowledgments

#### Life and Learning XVI
UFL Life and Learning Conference XVI - 2006Preface  The Right To Life In Domestic And International LawDoes International Law Protect the Unborn Child?   Patrick J. FloodOriginalism, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution: A Constitutional Right to Life?   Lee J. StrangThe (Surprising) Truth about Schiavo: A Defeat for the Cause of Autonomy  O. Carter SneadTwo Approaches for Fighting Roe v. Wade   Samuel W. CalhounConforming to the Rule of Law: Person and Human Being in 14 th Amendment Jurisprudence   Charles I. Lugosi Philosophical PerspectivesDefending Abortion Philosophically: A Review of David Boonin's A Defense of Abortion    Francis J. BeckwithA Defense of the Deprivation Argument   Patrick TullyThe Embryo as a Human Person   Kevin O'Rourke, O.P.Health versus Harm: Euthanasia and Physicians' Duties   Jorge Garcia Liberalism And Natural Law Theory : Rival TraditionsThe Natural Law and Human Dignity: Reaffirming Ethical First Things   J. Daryl CharlesGeorge Parkin Grant on the Unthought Ontology of Abortion: Bringing the "Poisoned Cup to the Lips of Liberalism"   Roberta BayerLocke on Bodily Rights and the Immorality of Abortion: A Neglected Liberal Perspective   Eric Manchester Life Issues And CultureInstitutional Conscience and Catholic Health Care Grattan T. BrownMargaret Sanger's Multifaceted Defense of Abortion and Infanticide   Anne Barbeau GardinerLegacy of Ignorance: Abortion and Journalism in the Early Republic  Ralph FrascaCinematic Treatment of Abortion: Alfie (1965) and The Cider House Rules (1999)   Jeff Koloze Valuing Life In Different Stages And ConditionsEugenic Logic: Eliminating the Disabled  John J. Conley, S.J.Disability and Euthanasia: The Case of Helen Keller and the Bollinger BabyJohn Gerdtz  Abortion And American PoliticsCasey versus Santorum: The Politics of the 2006 Senatorial Race in Pennsylvania: What's a Pro-Lifer to Do?  William J. Parente, Sr.The Effects of State Legislation on the Incidence of Abortion during the 1990s   Michael J. NewHow Should Catholics Vote? Bringing Moral Principles to Life  Stephen J. Heaney Pro-Life Academics In A Pro-Choice Academy"God's Will and Our Own"  Samuel Calhoun"Pro-Life Challenges in an Academic Environment"   Jane Gilroy"Seventeen Years of an English Professor's Pro-life Activism in the Academy."  Jeff Koloze"A Pro-Life Professor of Nursing at a Catholic, Jesuit Institution of Higher Learning."  Richard J. Fehring  About Our ContributorsUFL BoardsAcknowledgments

#### Life and Learning XVII
UFL Life and Learning Conference XVII - 2007Preface  AcknowledgementsBioethics & Medical Ethics Bioethics, the Christian Citizen, and the Pluralist GameFrancis BeckwithThe Doubling Undone? Double Effect in Recent Medical EthicsJ. L. A. Garcia Legal PerspectivesSurveying the Foundations of Medical Law: A Reassessment of Glanville Williams's The Sanctity of Life and the Criminal Law   John Keown and David JonesResponse to Professors Keown and Jones   William L. Saunders, Jr.The Supreme Court and Abortion: The Implications of Gonzales v. Carhart (2007)   Richard S. MyersGonzales v. Carhart: Abortion Law that Looks Like Family Law  Helen M. AlvareContradictory Approaches to "Standing" in Federal Courts for the Unborn and for Animal Species  C. Bermeo Newcombe Culture of LifeDeep Ecology and the Culture of Death   Anne Barbeau GardinerDenying the Ill Effects of Abortion  Marcella ColbertA Metaphysics of Love and Embodiment: Abortion as the Retroactive Destruction of the Spousal Act   Maria FedorykaFreedom and the Dignity of the Poor: Against the Alien Abortion Agenda in Uganda   Jeffrey R. Adams and Karen K. Adams The Personhood QuestionConstruction, Development, and Revelopment   Richard StithNatural Kinds, Persons, and Abortion   Laura GarciaPersonhood, the Soul, and Non-Conscious Human Beings: Some Critical Reflections on Recent Forms of Argumentation within the Pro-Life Movement    Peter J. Colosi Stem Cell ResearchThe Good News of Adult Stem Cell Research: Working Towards the Common Good   John F. MorrisAltered Nuclear Transfer and the Status of the Human Person (for table #2 noted in the text - click here)    Dolors J. MeehanThe Moral Status of the Oocyte   Kimberly ZenarollaAltered Nuclear Reprogramming and Efficient Causality   E. Christian Brugger Questions in Medicine and NursingShould Advanced Practice Nurses Perform Abortions? Debate in the Profession    Carolyn A LaabsThe Influence of Religiosity on Contraceptive Use and Abortion in the United States    Richard J. Fehring and Jennifer Ohlendorf Religious Liberty QuestionsWith Liberty and Justice for All? A National Perspective on the Escalating Threats to Religious Liberty Directed at Limiting the Impact of Church Ministries and the Pro-Life Movement   Marie T. HilliardThe Conscience of the Pharmacist   John J. Conley, S.J. Theological PerspectivesReading the Signs of Death: A Theological Analysis   Grattan T. BrownDeath, Life and the "God" Question   Gregory J. CoulterLiberal Societies and the Foundations of Human Dignity: The Dramatic Nature of Human Action   David L. Schindler, SrThe Human Embryo: The Person and the Gift   Brian V. Johnstone, C.SS.R. Literary PerspectivesEmile Zola: Improbable Defender of Life   Mary ShivanandanAbortion and Emily Dickinson: Sex, Religion and Romanticism in the Marriage Group Poems   Bernadette Waterman WardAbortion in Modern Arabic Literature   Jeff Koloze Political PerspectivesWinds of Change: Do Bush's Recent Supreme Court Appointees Mean the End of FACE?    Mattei RaduCalifornia's Proposition 85: Was It Pro-Life Suicide?    Damian P. FedorykaMissouri 2006: A Perfect Storm - Post-Mortem on the Missouri Stem Cell and Cures Initiative    Christopher Anadale and Albert Bruecken, O.S.B.We're All Traditionalists Now: The Priority of Praxis to Theoria for the Culture War    Thaddeus J. Kozinski Political PhilosophyJohn Locke and the Heart of Modern Gnosticism   Mark ShiffmanAbortion, Prudence, and Solidarity   James G. HaninkAbortion and Evil   Roberta Bayer  About Our Contributors UFL Boards

#### Life and Learning XVIII
LIfe and Learning XVIII - 2008Entire Proceedings  (Download as a single file)PrefaceBIOETHICSEngaging the Whole Breadth of Reason: Catholic Bioethics in the University and in the Post-Secular World  Edmund D. Pellegrino. QUESTIONS OF CONSCIENCE AND LAWRights of Conscience vs. Peer-Driven Medical Ethics: ACOG and Abortion  Lynn D. WardleAssessing the Legal Bases for Conscientious Objection in Healthcare   Richard S. Myers“Partial-Birth Abortion” Is Not Abortion: Carhart II’s Fundamental Misapplication of Roe    Samuel W. CalhounConstitutional Personhood of the Unborn Child   Robert C. Cetrulo POLITICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVESNatural Law Liberalism: A Framework for Promoting the Sanctity of Human Life   Christopher WolfeEpiphanies and Humanae Vitae   Janet E. SmithGarrett Hardin and James Rachels: Gurus of a Post-Human Age   Anne Barbeau Gardiner PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVESPersonal Identity and the Genome Project  John J. Conley, S.J.Would Aquinas Change His Mind on Hominization Today?  Craig PayneJacques Maritain and the Embryo: A Master’s Muddles   James G. Hanink RHETORICAL AND LITERARY PERSPECTIVESInvective, Irony, Sarcasm and Other Negative Tropes in Pro-life Rhetoric  Robert F. GotcherDeath Scenes in Literature from the Nineteenth Century to Current Fiction   Jeff KolozeLife is Beautiful: The Theological Aesthetic Argument for Life   Matthew Lewis SuttonAbout Our ContributorsAcknowledgementsUFL Boards

#### Life and Learning XX
LAW AND POLITICSHealthcare Reform: A Pro-Life Perspective and a Pro-Life Response   William L. SaundersThe Constitutional Right Not to Participate in Abortions: Roe, Casey, and the Fourteenth Amendment Rights of Healthcare Providers   Mark L. RienziThreats to the Protection of Conscience in Catholic Health Care   Leonard J. Nelson, IIIA Comment on “The Constitutional Law and Politics of Reproductive Rights”   Richard S. MyersCULTURAL ISSUESStrange Bedfellows: Fr. John A. Ryan and the Minimum Wage Movement  J. Daniel Hammond   The Will to Live   Wanda Franz and Burke BalchToward a Pro-Life Environmental Movement   Lucia A. SilecchiaRHETORICAbortion Sex: Gay Rights as an Anti-Life Movement   D. Paul Sullins The “Lion of Munster” Rampant, or the Triumph of Classical Rhetoric: Bishop Clemens von Galen’s Sermon against Hitler’s “Euthanasia” Program  Francis ZapatkaPHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVESEpistemology and Abortion: A Fresh Look    James G. HaninkVulnerability, Dependence, and Abortion: A Reply to J.J. Thomson    G. J. CoulterBrain Life and the Argument from Potential: Affirming the Ontological Status of Human Embryos and Fetuses   Jason EberlLITERATURE AND TEACHINGLiterary Analysis of Abortion in the Short Story "Explosions" by Mo Yan of the People’s Republic of China  Jeff Koloze  My Seminar on Abortion at New York University   Evelyn Birge VitzMethods and Resources for Teaching Bioethics to Nurses  Barbara Freres

#### Life and Learning XXI
PrefaceLegal PerspectivesThe San Jose Articles and an International Right to Abortion   William L. Saunders, Esq.Anti-Choice: When Having a Choice Diminishes Family Solidarity   Richard StithPhilosophical PerspectivesThe Role of Metaphysics and Theology in the Contemporary Pro-Life Debate   Kimberly Zenarolla Henkel"Some One, from the Start": Arguments for Personal Humanity   James G. HaninkDaniel Maguire's Sacred Choices: Method and Content   Christopher M. Carr  Distinguishing Secular and Theological Justifications of the First Amendment: Implications for Pro-Life Legislation   Eric Manchester Literary and Cultural PerspectivesContemporary Jewish Fiction on Abortion: Ethical Considerations from Various Responsa and their Absence in Recent Jewish-American FictionJeff Koloze  The American Experience of Abortion: An Interdisciplinary Approach   Denise MackuraWe Are All Gods   Charles K. BellingerMedical and Scientific PerspectivesCryopreserved Embryos and Dignitas Personae: Another Option?   Patrick A. Tully  The World Health Organization   Andrew EssigToward a More Pro-life Campus: Insights from Attitude Research   Nicholas DiFonzo  The Influence of Contraception on Abortion among Women of Reproductive Age in the United States    Richard J. FehringMoral Perspectives"Vital Conflicts" and the Catholic Magisterial Tradition  Kevin L. Flannery, S.J. A Revised Analysis of the "Phoenix Abortion Case"" and a Critique of New Natural Law Intentionality    Thomas Berg"Vital Conflicts" and the Catholic Magisterial Tradition A Case for Equal Basic Rights for All Human Beings, Born and Unborn: A Response to Critics of The Ethics of Abortion    Christopher Kaczor

#### Life and Learning XXII
Legal PerspectivesHow Pro-Life Moral Principles Have Been Nurtured in the Mormon Faith Community   Lynn D. Wardle Reflections on the Twentieth Anniversary of Planned Parenthood v. Casey   Richard S. MyersCultural PerspectivesCulture of Life, Culture of Marriage: Examining the Linkages  William C. DuncanThe Abolition of Chattel Abortion  Cynthia HallenRené Girard and the History of Rights Language  Charles K. BellingerA Hidden Agenda? The Politics of Abortion under a Majority Conservative Canadian Government  William MathieLatino Literature on the Life Issues: Commentary on Tato Laviera's "Jesús Papote," Judith Ortiz Cofer's "Silent Dancing," and Bella   Jeff KolozeScientific And Medical PerspectivesThe Influence of Contraception on Abortion among Women of Reproductive Age in the United States  Richard J. Fehring

#### Life and Learning XXIII
ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL ISSUESThe World Bank  Andrew Essig Commercial Markets Created by Abortion: Profiting from the Fetal Distribution Chain   Victoria EvansLessons from the Wilderness: Breaking the Environmentalist Pro-Choice Alliance  Alan Dane WatermanGrappling with the Cosmic “Single Issue”  Gary HardawayLITERARY PERSPECTIVESAnthology of Right-to-Life Literature: Establishing the Canonical Maturity of a Vibrant Social Force   Jeff Koloze  Jocasta and the Sin of Thebes  Bernadette Waterman WardRHETORICAL ISSUESThe Trojan Cavalry  Charles K. Bellinger  Fetus as Child: A Suggestion for Pro-Life Vocabulary   Karen Chan  Abortion: Issues and Controversies: A Freshman Seminar at Furman University  Carolyn J. WatsonLEGAL PERSPECTIVES Rape/Incest Abortion: The Exception that Proves the Rule  E. Tyler GrahamRe-Reading Roe v. Wade    Richard S. Myers Defending the Human Right to Life in Latin America  William L. SaundersPHILOSOPHICAL ISSUESWhat Do We Owe to Embryos?  Jason T. Eberl   The Physician-to-Patient Relationship in Virtues-Based Ethical Analysis   J.L.A. GarciaOn Life & Its Point: Reflections on What “They” Say   James G. HaninkBIOLOGICAL AND MEDICAL TOPICSPreventing Unintended Pregnancies (the Natural Way) among Women with Hard Cases   Richard J. Fehring  Is It Our Duty to Have Designer Babies? A Critique of the New Eugenics   Richard Weikart   The Strange Case of Alexis Carrel, Eugenicist   John J. Conley, S.J

#### Life and Learning XXIV
LEGAL PERSPECTIVESHobby Lobby, Conestoga Wood Specialties, and the Future of Roe v. Wade   Lynn D. Wardle Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the United States: A Current Legal Perspective   Richard S. MyersWhy Regional Human Rights Institutions Matter to Unborn Children  Patrick J. FloodPHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL ISSUESArguing For Myself: Taking the Abstract and Making it Personal   Elizabeth J. Bakewicz  Jesus v. Abortion   Charles K. Bellinger Of Wholes and Parts: A Thomistic Refutation of “Brain Death”   Michel AccadLITERARY AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVESSelect Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Assisted Suicide Fiction: Themes and Absences in the Works  Jeff Koloze Euthanasia’s Frontier: The Experiment in Belgium  John J. Conley, S.J The Pro-Lifer’s Pro-Life Duty to Advocate a Balanced Environmental Ethic   Marie I. George  Witnesses to Truth: A Spirituality to Sustain Us   Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, S.V.MEDICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL ISSUESThe Influence of Contraception, Abortion and Natural Family Planning on Divorce Rates as Found in the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth   Richard J. Fehring

#### Life and Learning XXIX
Preface   Joseph W. Koterski, S.J THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES“Precious in the Eyes of the Lord is the Death of his Holy Ones”: A Theology of Holy Saturday for a Culture of Life   Matthew SuttonThe “Culture of Death” as a “Structure of Sin”    Kevin E. Miller Professing the Gift of Life: Responding to Requests for Genetic Testing in Early Pregnancy    Kevin E. MillerOn Pope Francis and the Consistent Life Ethic   Barbara Freres Be Compassionate as your Father is Compassionate: Avoiding the Pitfalls of  Compassion  Marek Duran  Attitudes Towards People with Disabilities in the Gospels Michael S. Donahou PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVESBrain Death: From Mistaken Assumptions to Legal Fiction and a Threat to the Living   R. Mary Hayden LemmonsThe Importance of Philosophical Arguments for the Reality of the Spiritual Soul in Prolife Work   Peter J. ColosiLife Issues and Disability in Light of the Christian Humanism of Saint John Paul II   Jeffrey TranzilloPiety and a Marriage Open to Life    Mathew LuThe Disabled in Locke and Aquinas: Impediments to Economic Liberty or Contributors to the Economy of Salvation?    Eric Manchester  SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVESA Twenty-Year History (1958-1978) of Contraception and Abortion as Experienced by the Catholic Medical Association   Richard J. Fehring The Influence of Religiosity and Contraception on the Likelihood of Abortion among Reproductive Age Women  Richard J. Fehring  LITERARY PERSPECTIVESCritical Disability Studies and Fiction on the Right-to-Life Issues: Carlos Fuentes’s Christopher Unborn, Lois Lowry’s The Giver, and the Million Dollar Baby Franchise Jeff Koloze “Them There Sort”: The Disabled in the Fiction of Flannery O’Connor Bernadette Waterman Ward My Daddy’s Name is Victor: The Suffering of Frankenstein and Lab-Created Children David Deavel LEGAL PERSPECTIVES Liberty Finds No Refuge: The Doubt-Filled Future of Casey’s Undue Burden Standard  Thomas J. Molony THE SMITH AWARDComments Delivered upon the Reception of the 2019 Smith Award  Tom Cavanaugh

#### Life and Learning XXV
PrefaceContributorsMAKING SOUND AND PERSUASIVE ARGUMENTSDoubt as a Basis for Persuasion on the Abortion Question   M.T. Lu Overcoming the Imaginative Barrier to Embryonic Personhood   Richard StithLEGAL PERSPECTIVESWhy the Right to Elective Abortion Fails Casey’s Own Interest-Balancing Methodology and Why It Matters  Stephen G. Gilles Restricting Abortions at Eight Weeks is Consistent with Legal Principles of Roe v. Wade  Michael J. DegnanTHE HHS MANDATEPPACA (Obamacare) and Abortion  Lynn D. Wardle The HHS Mandate: A Question of Religious Freedom or the Life Issues?  Peter J. ColosiTHE EUTHANASIA QUESTION Countering Some Popular Arguments for Euthanasia   Catherine Jack Deavel  Addressing the Issues of Abortion and Euthanasia in the Fundamentals of Nursing: Utilizing the Theory of Moral Distress   Elizabeth SuttonCompassion, Assisted Suicide, and the Problem of Suffering   R. Mary Hayden LemmonsLITERARY AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES Suicide, Shakespeare and Sloth  Bernadette Waterman Ward  “Historical Re-enactments: A Key Pro-life Argument”   Charles Bellinger Abortion Distortion: Correcting Literary Criticism’s Misreading of Early Twentieth-Century Abortion Fiction  Jeff KolozeThe Authentic Identity of Motherhood: Edith Stein and Surrogacy  John T. Goerke  Evangelical and Catholic Vampire Hunters Together   David Deavel

#### Life and Learning XXVI
THE BRAIN DEATH QUESTION Integrated But Not Whole? Applying an Ontological Account of Human Organismal Unity to the Brain Death Debate  Melissa Moschella Reply to Melissa Moschella  E. Christian Brugger  Brain Death and Irreplaceable Parts  Christopher Tollefsen  Existing As My Soul: A Response to Christopher Tollefsen’s "Brain Death and Irreplaceable Parts"  Thomas V. BergQUESTIONS ON PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE Washington v. Glucksberg and Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Pyrrhic Victory?   Christopher Wolfe Arguing Precisely Why Assisted Suicide is Wrong and Whether Morality is More Like Math or Beauty Joshua Cole Obergefell, Substantive Due Process, and the Constitutionality of Laws Banning Assisted Suicide  Richard S. Myers Five "Tricks of the Heart" regarding Physician Assisted Suicide  Susan Windley-DaoustOTHER END OF LIFE QUESTIONSEnd-of-Life Options and Double Effect: On the Use and Misuse of a Classical Ethical Principle  Heidi Giebel  Death, Dignity, and Moral Status  David Hershenov  Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking at the End of Life (VSED) and Its Troubling Implications for Nursing Practice   Elizabeth Sutton A Bridge That Does Not Exist: Reductio ad Absurdum and the Socratic Method in Teaching on the Issues of Abortion and Euthanasia  Simona Kragh Animals, Advance Directives, and Prudence: Should We Let the Cheerfully Demented Die?  David G. LimbaughTHE CULTURE OF LIFEContemplative Sorrow and the Culture of Life  Margaret I. Hughes Biography and Abortion: Perception and Distortion of Reality in Accounts by Celebrity Aborted Mothers   Jeff Koloze  Drama Pro Vita: Farewell to Hippocrates and Just Like Us  John J. Conley, S.J. The Self-Evident Truth of the Inalienable Right to Life and The Slavery Analogy to Abortion   Lynn D. WardleSketch of an Existential Bioethic: Abortion qua Existential Despair   Timothy Rothhaar  Population Decline in Clark County -- Good or Bad?    David L. BanaszakNASCENT LIFE ISSUESFraming Unplanned Pregnancy Decision Making within the Theory of Planned Behavior  Nicholas DiFonzoEmbryos and Integration  Maureen L. Condic 

#### Life and Learning XXVII
Preface   Joseph W. Koterski, S.JPEDAGOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Toward a Universally Engaging Pro-Life Rhetoric  Robert J. Spitzer, S.J. The Bible and Bioethics: From Timeless Truths to Timely Applications  Ryan C. MacPhersonPHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVESHaving a Rational Nature as the Basis for Being a Subject of Rights   Patrick Lee  Is Speciesism Like Racism and Sexism?  M. T. Lu Are Brains Needed for Fetal Subjectivity?   Nathan Metzger Medical Ethics and the Externalization of Agency   Heidi GiebelLITERARY PERSPECTIVESCrimes of Inaction: Death by Neglect in George Eliot's Novels   Bernadette Waterman Ward  Right-to-Life Issues in Contemporary Bioethics Fiction    Jeff KolozeLEGAL PERSPECTIVESThe Boundaries of Identity: Will Justice Neil Gorsuch Vote "Pro-Life" on Abortion Issues?   Lynn D. WardleOverruling Roe v. Wade: The Implications for Women and the Law  Paul Benjamin Linton  A Catholic Contribution to the Right to Life: An Analysis of Abortion Jurisprudence in the United States and Poland    Rachana Chhin SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVESInfluence of Current Contraceptive Use on the Abortion and Sexually Transmitted Disease Rates among Adolescents and Young Adults in the United States    Richard J. Fehring, Ph.D., R.N., Thomas Bouchard, M.D., and Maria Meyers, M.D.   The Brain-Dead Body Is Alive, One, and Human: A Response to Maureen Condic and Other Proponents of Brain Death   Michel Accad, M.D  "Brain Death" Is a Mendacity   Paul A. Byrne, M.D. Understanding the Apnea Test: Procedure with a Predetermined Purpose  Christine M. Zainer, M.D. and Paul A. Byrne, M.D.   Men's Mental Health and Abortion: A Review of the Research    Catherine T. Coyle and Vincent M. Rue

#### Life and Learning XXVIII
Preface -- Joseph W. Koterski, S.JLEGAL PERSPECTIVESA Draft Opinion Overruling Roe v. Wade  Clarke D. Forsythe The Constitutionality of Laws Banning Sex-Selection Abortion  Richard S. MyersEducating "Statesmen in Full": Lessons from Thomas More, Patron of Statesmen   Gerard WegemerCULTURAL PERSPECTIVEMaking Death Easier Makes Life Harder  Richard Stith How to Forge a Pro-Life Culture in the Face of Elite Resistance  Christopher Wolfe Unalienable: A Pro-life, American Concept  Christopher James Wolfe Life and Love: The Mission of Personalist Feminism in Combating the Culture of Death   R. Mary Hayden LemmonsLITERARY PERSPECTIVESLatino Literature on the Life Issues: Commentary on Tato Laviera's "Jesús Papote," Judith Ortiz Cofer's "Silent Dancing," and Bella    Jeff Koloze  Right-to-Life Issues in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian Literature   Jeff Koloze The Crack in the Door   Bernadette Waterman WardPHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVESNew Challenges to Humanae vitae: Conscience and Discernment    Janet E. SmithMedicine's Interest in Abortion     William A. Frank If the Fetus is a Part of the Mother, then Three Popular Abortion Defenses Fail on Purely Conceptual Grounds     David B. Hershenov

#### Life and Learning XXX
Preface  Joseph W. Koterski, S.J PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVESRoadmap to Building the Culture of Life:Reflections on the Culture Wars and John Paul II’s Thomistic Personalism   R. Mary Hayden Lemmons Evangelium vitae and Catholic Social Teaching   Joseph W. Koterski, S.J  LEGAL PERSPECTIVES Evangelium vitae and Constitutional Law  Richard S. MyersAborted Human Fetal Tissue in Vaccines: Ethical and Legal Considerations amid the Race to a COVID-19 Vaccine  Ryan C. MacPherson The Pro-Life Movement at (Almost) Fifty: Where Do We Go From Here? Paul Benjamin Linton  FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART Life and Truth in Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go   Bernadette Waterman Ward When Culture Is Challenged by Art: Pro-Life Responses in the Art of T. Gerhardt Smith to Cultural Aggression Against the Vulnerable   Jeff Koloze"Trust Landlords": Pro-Choice Candidate Supports Eviction Rights (a satire)  Richard Stith CULTURE OF LIFE Persistent Acts of Mercy, Not Random Acts of Kindness: Building a Culture of Pro-Life Virtue  Heidi Giebel Challenge of Evangelium vitae to All Sides of the Unending Abortion Debate  J.R. Kelly  Do Pro-Lifers Believe What They Claim to Believe?  David Hershenov  Abortion Laws: A Suggestion for Politicians  Peter Simpson Evangelium vitae and Promoting a Culture of Life through Natural Family Planning   Richard J. Fehring

#### Life and Learning XXXI
Preface  R. Mary Hayden Lemmons, Ph.D.  MEDICAL PERSPECTIVES Unmasking the Truth About Chemical Abortions   Kathleen RavielePHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES  Biopolitics, Sexuality, and Women   Angela Franks The False, the Evil, and the Ugly: A Critique of Margaret Kamitsuka's Defense of Abortion   Charles K. Bellinger   How Not to Defend the Unborn   David Hershenov and Philip A. Reed  POLITICAL AND LEGAL PERSPECTIVES In Search for An Authentic Reproductive Justice   Erika Bachiochi The Constitutionality of Laws Banning Down Syndrome Abortions    Richard MyersHalf a Century of Strife: The Abortion Controversy's Inescapable Centrality in Modem American History   Keith Cassidy   LITERARY PERSPECTIVES Anna Laetitia Barbauld: Poet of Pregnancy among the Romantic Radicals  Bernadette Waterman Ward   "He hath made Himself...weak enough, now into the world to come": The Embryo Christ in Lancelot Andrewes and John Donne     Theresa Kenney   Fiction of the New Killers: Girls, Teenagers, and Other Misguided Female Feminists in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction on Abortion, Infanticide, and Euthanasia    Jeff Koloze 

#### Life and Learning XXXII
Preface  J.D. Flanagan, Ph.D., Editor ABORTION, CONTRACEPTION, RELIGIOSITY, AND NFPInfluence of Religiosity and Contraception on the Odds of Abortion among Reproductive Age Women: Data from the 2017–2019 NSFG   Richard J. FehringBuilding a Culture of Life Through a University Institute for NFP: The Joy of NFP-Only Healthcare Professionals   Richard J. Fehring  LIFE ISSUES O. Carter Snead on Public Bioethics and the Body   Barbara Freres The War in Ukraine and Abortion: Two Cases of Historical Rhyming  Charles K. Bellinger   PRO-LIFE MOVEMENTS "As Through a Glass, Darkly": Recent Interpretations of the Pro-Life Movement   Keith Cassidy The "Unplanned" Effect: Impact of Fetal Ultrasound Images on Viewers' Abortion Stance Heidi M. Giebel LITERARY AND ARTISTIC ANALYSES Nurture and the Machine: Willful Delusion in Klara and the Sun   Bernadette Waterman Ward Case Study of Contemporary Abortion Fiction: Applying Right-to-Life Literary Theory to Lisabeth Posthuma’s Baby & Solo  Jeff Koloze Verity: An Allegory for Life   Greg Lookerse REMEMBRANCESRemembering those gone before us    Various Contributors

#### Life and Learning XXXIII
Preface J.D. Flanagan, Ph.D., EditorABORTION, CONTRACEPTION, NFPBuilding a Culture of Life Through Evidence-Based Natural Family Planning (NFP)  Richard J. Fehring, Richard, Mary Schneider, and Susana Crespo The Challenges of a Pro-life Professor and NFP Researcher—a presentation as the 2023 UFFL Rupert and Timothy Smith Award for Pro-Life Scholarship recipient  Richard J. Fehring On the Deceptive Parlance of Abortion: Some Answers John L. GaskiPRO-LIFE MOVEMENTS Discipleship of Post-Graduates to Build a Culture of Life  Lynne Marie Kohm The Exportable Dobbs: Elements Useful in Other Countries Richard StithLITERARY AND ARTISTIC ANALYSIS Contemplating Upon the Children>  Bernadette Waterman Ward

#### Life and Learning XXXIV
Preface J.D. Flanagan, Ph.D., EditorABORTION, CONTRACEPTION, NFPA taxonomy of pro-abortion ideas: A good diagnosis is the basis of a good solution Pablo G. Maillet AranguizHistorical Origins and Reflections on the Term Natural Family Planning Richard J. FehringIncorporating New Hormonal Technology to Help Couples Avoid Pregnancy During and After Chemotherapy  Richard J. Fehring and Thomas BouchardLIFE ISSUESCatholics United on Brain Death and Organ Donation Joseph Ebel, Peter Colosi, and John Di Camillo“Brain Death” Lacks Medical, Moral, and Legal Foundations and is a Concealed Form of Euthanasia Heidi KlessigBrain “Death” Versus Christianity, Science, and Hylomorphic Anthropology R. Mary Hayden LemmonsPRO-LIFE MOVEMENTSWhat Should a Pro-Life Booklet Say Charles K. BellingerThe Median Voter Theory: Will Post-Dobbs Election Debacles Continue?   John PisciottaLITERARY AND ARTISTIC ANALYSISThe Underbelly of the Pursuit of Immortality: Pro-Life Lessons of Select Short Stories David P. DeavelGod’s Postman: John Henry Newman Fr. Joseph PearceStory, Not Narrative Bernadette Waterman Ward

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#### Officers
Board of Directors		R. Mary Hayden Lemmons, Ph.D.President,  University Faculty for LifeSteven Abell, Ph.D. - PsychologyTeresa Stanton Collett, J.D.Cathy Deavel, Ph.D. - PhilosophyDavid Deavel, Ph.D. - TheologyRichard Fehring, Ph.D., RNRev. Anthony E. Giampietro, CSB, Ph.D. - PhilosophyMargaret Hughes, Ph.D. - PhilosophyAnthony Joseph, Ph.D. - HistoryBernadette Waterman Ward, Ph.D. - English			Board of Advisors		Frank Beckwith, Ph.D.John Crosby, Ph.D.Richard DoerflingerDianne Irving, Ph.D.Richard Myers, J.D.C. Ben Mitchell, Ph.D.(Rabbi) David Novak, Ph.D.Robert Spitzer, SJ, Ph.D.Carol Jean Vale, SSJ, Ph.D.Francis Zapatka, Ph.D.

#### Other Prolife Websites
Additional Websites Provided for Pro-Life ResearchNote: UFFL provides these additional website links as an education service only. UFFL is not affiliated with any of these sites or with the organizations that sponsor them. UFFL does not list such websites because it agrees with the stance taken on those websites, but because of the unique contribution of those websites to scholarship.AbortionCenter for Disease Control Report - This report summarizes and describes data voluntarily reported to CDC regarding legal induced abortions obtained in the United States in 2002.Science for Unborn Human LifeAfterAbortion.orgThe Coalition on Abortion/Breast CancerPontifical Academy for LifeEuthanasiaNew York State Department of Health, Task Force on Life and the Law: When Death is Sought + SupplementNightingale Alliance - Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide OppositionGeneral Pro-LifeAmericans United for LifeNational Right to LifeHuman Life ReviewPriests for Life 

#### Past Proceedings
Life and Learning: Conference ProceedingsSince its second conference in 1992, UFFL has published the open-access Life and Learning Conference Proceedings, after peer-reviewing the papers presented at its Life and Learning conferences. Active members whose dues are paid receive the Proceedings each year, as do university and college libraries across the country.  Current Editor-in-ChiefCatherine Deavel, Ph.D. (Philosophy)Previous editors in chief:2021-2024: Don Flanagan, Ph.D. (literature)1992-2021: Rev. Joseph Koterski, S.J., Ph.D. (Philosophy)Life and Learning XXXIV- 2024Life and Learning XXXIII- 2023Life and Learning XXXII - 2022Life and Learning XXXI - 2021Life and Learning XXX - 2020Life and Learning XXIX - 2019Life and Learning XXVIII - 2018Life and Learning XXVII - 2017Life and Learning XXVI - 2016Life and Learning XXV - 2015Life and Learning XXIV - 2014Life and Learning XXIII - 2013Life and Learning XXII - 2012Life and Learning XXI - 2011Life and Learning XX - 2010Life and Learning XIX - 2009Life and Learning XVIII - 2008Life and Learning XVII - 2007Life and Learning XVI - 2006Life and Learning XV - 2005Life and Learning XIV - 2004Life and Learning XIII - 2003Life and Learning XII - 2002Life and Learning XI - 2001Life and Learning X - 2000Life and learning IX - 1999Life and learning VIII - 1998Life and learning VII - 1997Life and learning VI - 1996Life and learning V - 1995Life and learning IV - 1994Life and learning III - 1993Life and learning II - 1992

#### ProVita Newsletter
ProVita is the University Faculty for Life e-newsletter.  Current Editor in Chief:Margaret Hughes, Ph.D. (Philosophy)Previous Editor in Chief:1992-2021: Rev. Joseph Koterski, S.J., Ph.D. (Philosophy)			Current Issue: 		Fall 2025 / Winter 2026			Past Issues		Spring 2025Fall 2024Winter 2024Fall 2023Winter 2023Fall 2022Spring 2022Fall 2021Summer 2021Spring 2021Fall/Winter 2020Summer 2020Spring 2020Fall/Winter 2019Summer 2019Spring 2019Fall 2018Summer 2018Winter 2018Fall 2017Summer 2017Winter 2017Summer 2016Spring 2016Winter 2016Fall 2015Summer 2015Winter 2015Fall 2014Summer 2014Spring 2014Winter 2014Fall 2013Summer 2013April 2013January 2013July 2012February 2012October 2008May 2008April 2008March 2008December 2007May 2005March 2005December 2004

#### UFFL Blog
URL: https://uffl.org/blog/

#### UFFL Laureates
The Rupert and Timothy Smith Award for Distinguished Contributions to Pro-Life ScholarshipEach year UFFL bestows the The Rupert and Timothy Smith Award for Distinguished Contributions to Pro-Life Scholarship at its annual convention.  Because of their outstanding scholarly achievement and service of the pro-life movement, UFFL is proud to have honored the following UFFL Laureates:2004 -- Mr. Thomas Strahan, Esq. of Minnesota2005 -- Rev. Thomas King, S.J., Professor of Theology at Georgetown University and founding President of UFFL (†2009)2006 -- Prof. Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University2007 -- Dr. Jack Willke and Mrs. Barbara Willke, Life Issues Institute2008 -- Dr. Edmund Pellegrino, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Medical Ethics at Georgetown University2009 -- Prof. Gilbert Meilaender, Professor of Theology at Valparaiso University2010 -- Prof. Hadley Arkes, Edmund N. Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions at Amherst College.2011 -- Prof. David Solomon, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and Director of the Note Dame Center for Ethics and Culture.2012 -- Prof. William E. May, Emeritus Michael J. McGivney Professor of Moral Theology at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.2013 -- Prof. Ray Dennehy, Ph.D.,   Professor of Philosophy, University of San Francisco2014 -- Prof. Helen Alvare, Ph.D.,  George Mason University, School of Law2016 -- Fr. Joseph W. Koterski, S.J., Ph.D.,  Fordham University. Life and Learning's founding editor (1992-2021); International Philosophical Quarterly's editor-in-chief (1994-21). 2017 -- Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J. Ph.D., Magis Center of Reason and Faith and the Spitzer Center of Ethical Leadership2018 -- Prof. Francis Zapatka, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Literature, American University2019 -- Prof. Thomas Cavanaugh, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, University of San Francisco2020 -- Prof. Teresa Collett, J.D., Founding Director, University of St Thomas Law School Prolife Center2021 -- Keith Cassidy, Ph.D., President Emeritus of History, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College, and his wife Dr. Elizabeth Cassidy, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Senior Research Associate to The deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research in Toronto2022 -- O. Carter Snead, J.D., The Charles D. Rice Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame2023 -- Richard J. Fehring, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, a lead developer of the Marquette Method of Natural Family Planning, Professor Emeritus of Nursing, Marquette University2024 -- Charles Camosy, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Theology and Bioethics, Catholic University of America2025 -- Clarke Forsythe, J.D., Senior Counsel, Americans United for Life

#### UFL Chapters
Marquette University			
		
				
				University of Notre Dame			
		
									Marquette University Chapter Board MembersRichard J. Fehring, PhD, RN(Professor, Nursing) PresidentRichard.fehring [at] marquette [dot] eduDeirdre Dempsey, Ph.D.(Associate Professor, Theology) Vice PresidentDeirdre.dempsey [at] marquette [dot] eduWilliam Kurz, S.J., Ph.D.(Professor, Theology) Jesuit LiaisonWilliam.kurz [at] marquette [dot] eduAlphonse Zanoni, Ph.D.(Professor Emeritus, Engineering) Treasurerazanoni [at] wi [dot] rr [dot] comPatrick Doyle, Ph.D.(Cataloger, Memorial Library) SecretaryPat.doyle [at] marquette [dot] eduThe Marquette University Chapter of UFLA chapter of University Faculty for Life (UFL) was established at Marquette University in 1993 for the purpose of promoting research, dialogue, and publication among faculty members from Marquette University who respect the value of life from its inception to natural death, and to provide academic support for the pro-life position.The goals of the Marquette UFL chapter are as follows:To provide a University forum to foster multidisciplinary dialogue and collaboration among professors concerned about human life;To educate the Marquette University and Milwaukee Community about life issues and the reasons behind pro-life positions;To provide cooperation between the Marquette University Students for Life organization and the Marquette UFL Chapter.Events Sponsored or Co-sponsored by the Marquette University Chapter University Faculty for Life Recent Local Lunch Hour speakers and topics:Assistant District Attorney Thomas Potter, JD lead a discussion on the “Ethical and Legal Aspects of the Terry Schiavo Case” March, 2004.Fr. Will Prospero, S.J., Assistant Director of University Ministry, lead a discussion on the 12 page document “Standing for the Unborn: a Statement of the Society of Jesus in the United States on Abortion.” March 2005.Recent Major Sponsored Presentations:Ralph Del Colle, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Marquette University Theology Dept: Spoke on: The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering. Co-sponsored by Marquette University Faculty for Life and the Milwaukee Guild of the Catholic Medical Association, February, 2004.Raymond Dennehy, PhD, Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco. Presented “The Culture of Death and the Treachery of the Elites.” Event co-sponsored by Marquette University Faculty for Life with M.U. Students for Life, and the student organization JUSTICE, November, 2004.Thomas A. Cavanaugh, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of San Francisco, spoke on “Caring versus Killing” Terminal Sedation Contrasted with Euthanasia & Physician Assisted Suicide. Sponsored by: Marquette University College of Nursing, the Institute for End of Life Care Education, and Marquette Faculty for Life. May, 2005.Clarke Forsythe, JD attorney and director of the Project in Law & Bioethics at Americans United for Life, spoke on “The Tragic Failure of Roe v. Wade: Why Abortion Should be Returned to the States,” April, 2006.Events Co-Sponsored with the Milwaukee Guild of the Catholic Medical Association and the Medial College of Wisconsin Students for Life:2005 – Hippocratic Oath Banquet for Senior Medical Students: Speaker, Thomas Cavanaugh, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy. Topic: The Hippocratic Oath2006 – Hippocratic Oath Banquet for Senior Medical Students: Speaker, John Patrick, MD retired Associate Professor in Clinical Nutrition in the Department of Biochemistry and Paediatrics at the University of Ottawa. Topic: Hippocratic.2007 – Hippocratic Oath Banquet for Senior Medical Students								
									Notre Dame ChapterFor the chapter at the University of Notre Dame, please contact:Jeff Burks, Chapter President – UFL@nd.eduChapter website: http://UFL.nd.edu								
				Marquette University Chapter Board MembersRichard J. Fehring, PhD, RN(Professor, Nursing) PresidentRichard.fehring [at] marquette [dot] eduDeirdre Dempsey, Ph.D.(Associate Professor, Theology) Vice PresidentDeirdre.dempsey [at] marquette [dot] eduWilliam Kurz, S.J., Ph.D.(Professor, Theology) Jesuit LiaisonWilliam.kurz [at] marquette [dot] eduAlphonse Zanoni, Ph.D.(Professor Emeritus, Engineering) Treasurerazanoni [at] wi [dot] rr [dot] comPatrick Doyle, Ph.D.(Cataloger, Memorial Library) SecretaryPat.doyle [at] marquette [dot] eduThe Marquette University Chapter of UFLA chapter of University Faculty for Life (UFL) was established at Marquette University in 1993 for the purpose of promoting research, dialogue, and publication among faculty members from Marquette University who respect the value of life from its inception to natural death, and to provide academic support for the pro-life position.The goals of the Marquette UFL chapter are as follows:To provide a University forum to foster multidisciplinary dialogue and collaboration among professors concerned about human life;To educate the Marquette University and Milwaukee Community about life issues and the reasons behind pro-life positions;To provide cooperation between the Marquette University Students for Life organization and the Marquette UFL Chapter.Events Sponsored or Co-sponsored by the Marquette University Chapter University Faculty for Life Recent Local Lunch Hour speakers and topics:Assistant District Attorney Thomas Potter, JD lead a discussion on the "Ethical and Legal Aspects of the Terry Schiavo Case" March, 2004.Fr. Will Prospero, S.J., Assistant Director of University Ministry, lead a discussion on the 12 page document "Standing for the Unborn: a Statement of the Society of Jesus in the United States on Abortion." March 2005.Recent Major Sponsored Presentations:Ralph Del Colle, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Marquette University Theology Dept: Spoke on: The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering. Co-sponsored by Marquette University Faculty for Life and the Milwaukee Guild of the Catholic Medical Association, February, 2004.Raymond Dennehy, PhD, Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco. Presented "The Culture of Death and the Treachery of the Elites." Event co-sponsored by Marquette University Faculty for Life with M.U. Students for Life, and the student organization JUSTICE, November, 2004.Thomas A. Cavanaugh, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of San Francisco, spoke on "Caring versus Killing" Terminal Sedation Contrasted with Euthanasia & Physician Assisted Suicide. Sponsored by: Marquette University College of Nursing, the Institute for End of Life Care Education, and Marquette Faculty for Life. May, 2005.Clarke Forsythe, JD attorney and director of the Project in Law & Bioethics at Americans United for Life, spoke on "The Tragic Failure of Roe v. Wade: Why Abortion Should be Returned to the States," April, 2006.Events Co-Sponsored with the Milwaukee Guild of the Catholic Medical Association and the Medial College of Wisconsin Students for Life:2005 - Hippocratic Oath Banquet for Senior Medical Students: Speaker, Thomas Cavanaugh, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy. Topic: The Hippocratic Oath2006 - Hippocratic Oath Banquet for Senior Medical Students: Speaker, John Patrick, MD retired Associate Professor in Clinical Nutrition in the Department of Biochemistry and Paediatrics at the University of Ottawa. Topic: Hippocratic.2007 - Hippocratic Oath Banquet for Senior Medical StudentsNotre Dame ChapterFor the chapter at the University of Notre Dame, please contact:Jeff Burks, Chapter President - UFL@nd.eduChapter website: http://UFL.nd.edu