Where can we go for truthful reporting in a time when so much of our news media has returned to the age of sensationalism, dubious tabloid-style journalism, and blinkered partisanship? If we're searching for truthful and reliable news on the pro-life cause, we need look no further than EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.
Today we speak with Prudence Robertson, host of EWTN Pro-Life Weekly, the leading national media coverage source dedicated exclusively to pro-life news. As Robertson stated in an interview with NCR, her pro-life convictions have been "strengthened by seeing the beauty of adoption, attending a faithful Catholic college, and witnessing the fruits of how reasoned, charitable dialogue can persuade people to become pro-life.”
EWTN Pro-Life Weekly
https://www.ewtn.com/tv/shows/ewtn-pro-life-weekly
We speak today with Samuel D. Green, President & General Counsel of Reason for Life. Reason for Life encourages, equips, and educates Christian leaders who are hesitant to address abortion, helping them see that sharing the truth about this subject is both essential and loving.
Before founding Reason for Life, Samuel spent five years at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), where he engaged in litigation to defend the sanctity of life, freedom of speech, and religious liberty. Samuel has also worked as a litigation associate at a large law firm (Jenner & Block), as a member of a presidential campaign’s legal team, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Samuel finished first in his class at Pepperdine University School of Law, where he earned a Juris Doctor degree in 2011. He also studied political science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he graduated, summa cum laude, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2008.
Samuel has provided legislative testimony, preached sermons about the sanctity of life, and given presentations across the country to various groups or their chapters (including Students for Life of America, 40 Days for Life, Summit Ministries, Teen Pact Leadership Schools, the Federalist Society, and the St. Thomas More Society). Samuel has also participated in media interviews and published articles with various outlets, including Newsweek, The Seattle Times, The Hill, Washington Examiner, The Federalist, and The Daily Signal. Additionally, Samuel authored a legal brief in the historic Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Reason for Life: Changing Hearts, Saving Lives
https://reasonforlife.org
We speak today with Dr. John Bruchalski, a physician who has committed himself to the practice of holistic and life-affirming medicine.. Nearly 30 years ago, Dr. Bruchalski and his wife founded the Tepeyac Family Center, a pro-life obstetrics and gynecology medical practice. Tepeyac’s mission? To provide affordable care to all women, especially those in most need and those experiencing unexpected pregnancies. Dr. Bruchalski also started the Divine Mercy Care network, an umbrella organization, to support Tepeyac.
Prior to starting Tepeyac, Dr. Bruchalski was a physician who performed abortions and specialized in advanced fertility treatments. After several alarming and heart-gripping experiences, he began rethinking his career and found a new, life-affirming vocation in medicine. Dr. Bruchalski is a doctor, husband, speaker, teacher, and we speak with him about what it means to be a pro-life physician and the culture-shaping vision and mission of Tepeyac and missions like it.
Tepeyac OB/GYN: Something More Than Medicine
https://tepeyacobgyn.com
Divine Mercy Care: Transforming Hearts Through Healthcare
https://divinemercycare.org
We speak today about the relationship between the human right to life and the right to religious freedom.
Our freedoms of thought, conscience, and religion are natural and interdependent rights, and when rightly understood, they serve to elevate our conception of the meaning and purpose of human life—the goods we recognize that are a part of the created order, and what this created order suggests about our origins and our destiny.
The human right to life is the first and more fundamental of all human rights, but the human right to religious freedom matters, too, because to be human is to pursue the truth.
Today we speak with Amb. Sam Brownback, who served most recently as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom and continues to work with coalitions around the globe to promote and protect the right to religious liberty. He is currently serving as a fellow at the Center for Religous Studies at The Catholic University of America.
Before his appointment as U.S. Ambassador, Brownback previously served as a U.S. Senator and the 26th Governor of Kansas. Amb. Brownback is a prolific attorney, politician and diplomat and we speak with him about the importance of religous liberty, the human right to life, and what faith means to him personally.
Amb. Sam Brownback on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Brownback
National Committee for Religious Freedom
https://thencrf.org/
International Religious Freedom Summit (IRF)
https://irfsummit.org/
We speak today with Melissa Ohden, a survivor of a failed salient infusion abortion and the founder and director of the Abortion Survivors Network, which seeks to educate the public about failed abortions and provide emotional, mental, and spiritual support to the abortion survivors. Melissa is the author of “You Carried Me: A Daughter’s Memoir” and a frequent contributor in various pro-life and conservative media outlets such as Focus on the Family, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Fox News.
We listen in today to a lecture by Dr. Charles Camosy delivered to the Americans United for Life 2022 Summer Fellows cohort. Dr. Camosy speaks on how COVID-19 has impacted our sense of human dignity and what human persons are owed both in medicine and the culture broadly.
Dr. Camosy is a Professor of Medical Humanities at the Creighton University School of Medicine and is the Msgr. Michael J. Curran Fellow of Moral Theology at Saint Joseph’s Seminary and College. He is author most recently of Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality (New City Press, 2021) and the forthcoming Bioethics for Nurses: A Christian Moral Vision.
The reversal of Roe v. Wade is changing the landscape for the human right to life across America. We know of so many states where the human right to life is being affirming, enshrined, and upheld. Unfortunately, however, many states and cities will continue to perpetuate abortion. Planned Parenthood and abortion businesses are multi-billion dollar Goliaths whose power remains intact, even though abortion is no longer recognized, as it unfortunately was for too long, as a right.
Today we are excited to speak with Mayra Rodriguez, former director of three Planned Parenthood facilities. Mayra left the abortion industry, and in 2019 Mayra prevailed in a $3 million lawsuit for wrongful termination against Planned Parenthood. Mayra sees her life has having been transformed by the mercy of God, and now sees it as her life mission to expose Planned Parenthood, abortion businesses, and to make abortion unthinkable.
Mayra is a speaker, wife, mother, and courageous pro-life leader. Mayra joins Tom Shakely and Elli Jochims on Life, Liberty, and Law.
Tom Shakely introduces an important recent joint-webinar hosted by Americans United for Life and the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding, held in the wake of the Dobbs decision and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Glenn Foster, President & CEO of Americans United for Life, Hadley Arkes, Founder of the James Wilson Institute, and Josh Craddock, Affiliated Scholar at the James Wilson Institute, come together to discuss the Dobbs decision and how it changes the pro-life movement.
Hadley Arkes is Professor emeritus at Amherst College, Founder of JWI, main advocate, and architect of the Born-Alive Infants’ Protection Act, and leading natural rights scholar. Catherine Glenn Foster, J.D is President & CEO of Americans United for Life, leading scholar on abortion, and litigator of precedent-setting § 1983 and other constitutional questions and on abortion and maternal health. Josh Craddock, J.D is a affiliated scholar with JWI, public speaker, and writer. Josh’s writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Newsweek, National Review, First Things, Public Discourse, The Stream, and Providence Magazine. The webinar, held July 7th, 2022, was moderated by Garrett Snedeker, Deputy Director of the James Wilson Institute.
The overturning of Roe v. Wade continues to send shockwaves through not only the United States of America, but also our allies internationally. For the first time, many are discovering that the overturning of Roe and the ending of our extreme abortion jurisprudence actually doesn’t change that much on the ground in states that will continue to be pro-abortion, and that in states that are embracing pro-life law and policy, most American pro-life law mirrors European-style protections—for instance, Mississippi’s law which the U.S. Supreme Court just upheld protects life at 15 weeks of a preborn child’s life. This means that Mississippi’s abortion laws are, actually, more liberal than the abortion laws on the books in nations like Italy, France, or most other European allies.
If Roe’s reversal means that even pro-life states will generally mimic European-style laws, where killing is still permissible throughout the first months of a child’s life, does this represent a true pro-life victory? No. There’s more to be done—Americans United for Life will continue to call upon the Executive, Legisltive, and Judicial branches to clarify that abortion is fundamentally incompatible with constitutional justice. We will continue to call upon the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify that natural human rights precede the letter of any constitution, and that our first and most fundamental of all human rights—the human right to life—means that unborn children are entitled to the equal protection of the laws.
Today we feature an important conversation hosted by our friends at Live Action on June 24th, 2022, the day of the release of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision and its reversal of Roe v. Wade. Catherine Glenn Foster, President & CEO of Americans United for Life speaks on what true constitutional justice looks like, and how the pro-life movement can cast a vision of a truly brighter future for all. Catherine is joined by Josh Craddock, Affiliated Scholar at the James Wilson Institute and Noah Brandt, Director of Government Affairs at Live Action.
Clarke Forsythe, Senior Counsel at Americans United for Life, joins Carolyn McDonnell, Staff Counsel, and Tom Shakely on "Life, Liberty, and Law" to discuss the overturning of Roe v. Wade, what the U.S. Supreme Court Justices have to say in the final opinion, and what's next.
“We are grateful to millions of Americans across our nation who sacrificed to see this day,” said Clarke Forsythe, Senior Counsel at Americans United for Life. “We know there is a lot of work ahead to save lives and help mothers balance their family, work, and future. We will continue our work for an America that upholds the dignity of the human person and protects every member of the human family in culture, law, and policy.”
Overturning Roe: A Ben Domenech Documentary
https://nation.foxnews.com/overturning-roe-nation/
Catherine Glenn Foster, President & CEO of Americans United for Life joins Steven H. Aden, Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel and Tom Shakely on AUL's "Life, Liberty, and Law" to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade and the future of pro-life advocacy.
“Today, the U.S. Supreme Court has correctly and courageously reversed Roe v. Wade and restored a future full of hope for Americans of all ages, backgrounds, and beliefs. No more will the national fiction of abortion violence be perpetuated as if it could be a constitutional right. After nearly fifty years and the loss of more than sixty-two million American lives, Americans can once more choose to protect human life through their elected lawmakers,” said Catherine Glenn Foster, President & CEO of Americans United for Life.
“Today is a promise of hope for all members in the human family, but especially for women and those millions who will now be protected from prenatal violence,” said Catherine Glenn Foster. “The work of Americans United for Life and the Pro-Life Movement has truly just begun. We invite all Americans to walk alongside us in the days, months, and years to come to enshrine pro-life laws in every state to uphold the human right to life, and to work toward the urgent and still necessary goal of abolishing abortion in American culture. We must clarify, as a constitutional matter as much as a matter of fundamental justice, that abortion shall not exist in the United States of America. And we must simultaneously strengthen American programs ensuring every person, born and not yet born, is equipped and empowered to thrive.”
Overturning Roe: A Ben Domenech Documentary
https://nation.foxnews.com/overturning-roe-nation/
In light of the unprecedented leak of the U.S. Supreme Court's draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, issues of human dignity and the human right to life are front and center in our culture. We speak today with someone who has worked at the intersection of human dignity issues for many years and across a range of institutions.
Arina O. Grossu, M.A., M.S., is Founder and Principal at Areté Global Consulting and a Fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. She focuses on the protection of human dignity, human rights, and the sanctity of human life from fertilization to natural death. Her areas of expertise include abortion, women’s health, bioethics, conscience, pornography, sex trafficking, assisted suicide, and euthanasia.
Arete Global Consulting
https://areteglobalconsulting.com
Arina Grossu at Discovery Institute
https://www.discovery.org/p/grossu/
Catherine Glenn Foster, President & CEO of Americans United for Life, testified this week in the U.S. House of Representatives to the Democrat-controlled House Committee on the Judiciary for their inflammatory and tragically named “Revoking Your Rights: The Ongoing Crisis in Abortion Care Access.” Catherine Glenn Foster was the sole pro-life witness and was surrounded by pro-abortion activists. Katie Glenn, Government Affairs Counsel at Americans United for Life, joins Tom Shakely to talk about the hearings, what it was like to be in the room, the realities of abortion violence, and what the post-Roe role of lawmakers will be for advancing the human right to life.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020 and Americans entered into what authorities assured us would be "two weeks to slow the spread," many predicted a baby boom would be the natural result of this time of closeness in quarantine. Yet there’s been no baby boom. And in fact, it looks like family formation and birth rates may, in fact, be continuing to decline as a result of the pandemic and the economic fallout of more than two years of ad hoc state and fiscal policy decisions.
As human persons, we’re make for relationship. We’re made for each other. We’re made for family and for community. We’re made for love. These insights are at the heart of Americans United for Life and our mission to advance the human right to life in culture, law, and policy.
So what do these challenging trends in birth rates, family formation, and economic portend for American life—and a possible poe-Roe cultural and political environment?
We’re thrilled to speak today with Dr. Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, Associate Professor at The Catholic University of America. Dr. Pakaluk joined the faculty at the Busch School in the summer of 2016, and is the founder of the Social Research academic area, where she is an Associate Professor of Social Research and Economic Thought. Formerly, she was Assistant Professor and Chair of the Economics Department at Ave Maria University. Her primary areas of research include economics of education and religion, family studies and demography, Catholic social thought and political economy.
Morbid Safetyism
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/10/morbid-safetyism
A leaked draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court, published in full by POLITICO and confirmed by Chief Justice John Roberts as authentic, suggests that the U.S. Supreme Court is on the verge of reversing Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. What does this mean for the pro-life movement? What does this mean for America? What does it mean at this moment in time?
Catherine Glenn Foster, President & CEO of Americans United for Life joins Steven H. Aden, Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel and Katie Glenn, Government Affairs Counsel, to break down the leak, what it may mean for the pro-life cause, and where we go next.
America has been grappling with suicide for decades. The anti-life logic of Roe v. Wade in 1973 made it inevitable that suicide, and the effort to legalize suicide, would join abortion as a major national issue. Although the Supreme Court, thankfully, ruled 9-0 in the 1997 case Washington v. Glucksberg that the Constitution contains no right to assisted suicide—the Court in essence punted the issue to the states, allowing assisted suicide to be imposed on the state level. So although the Court saved us in 1997 from a Roe v. Wade style national imposition of assisted suicide, the Court did not find that the Constitution is incompatible with the injustice of suicide and suicide assistance. What has taken place over quarter century since that 1997 case is a slow but steady increase in states permitting suicide assistance—most commonly through what is termed “physician assisted suicide”.
Dr. Jeffrey J. Barrows joins us today to speak about physician assisted suicide, why suicide prevention (rather than assistance) is at the heart of good medicine, and how to respond hopefully and positively to the challenges of life. Dr. Barrows serves as Senior Vice President of Bioethics and Public Policy for Christian Medical & Dental Associations. Dr. Barrows is an obstetrician/gynecologist, author, educator, medical ethicist and speaker.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has wrapped up its weeklong hearings with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who appears set to succeed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Judge Jackson describes Roe v. Wade as settled law and would be a reliable vote for abortion on the high court, yet describes herself as an originalist. Steven H. Aden, Chief Legal Officer at Americans United for Life joins Katie Glenn, Government Affairs Counsel, to speak about Judge Jackson's surprising claim and reflect on what Justice Jackson might for the future of the Supreme Court and for abortion jurisprudence.
Today we share an important talk by Dr. Donna Harrison, a physician, board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology, who serves as CEO of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Dr. Harrison recently joined Clarke Forsythe, Senior Counsel at Americans United for Life, for one of AUL's "Quarterly Calls" on timely and relevant issues facing America and the pro-life movement. Dr. Harrison speaks on chemical abortion pills, the risks of abortion pills to women, and the post-Roe pro-abortion strategy.
As background to Dr. Harrison's talk, consider watching this VICE News piece, entitled “Inside Texas’s Underground Abortion Pill Network”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR3uexqGgXo
VICE News documents the trafficking of chemical abortion between Texas and Mexico. Notice how misoprostol is casually referred to in the video and used, independent of mifepristone, and how little information is given about what mifepristone and misoprostol are or how they work or their risks. This is the pro-abortion plan for “post-Roe" America.
Katie Glenn, Government Affairs Counsel at Americans United for Life, joins "Life, Liberty, and Law" from Indianapolis, Indiana to discuss International Women's Day, President Biden's first State of the Union address, and pro-life state legislative progress.
At Americans United for Life, we’re committed to advancing the human right to life in culture, law, and policy. We do this at the federal level, by working with and influencing all three branches of our federal government, and we do this work in the states, by working with advocates and lawmakers to pass robust laws that protect children, their mothers and fathers, and whole communities.
You can’t foster the kind of culture needed for a thriving America without family, without friends, without working together with a shared vision of a better future. We need allies in the work, or else it doesn’t get done.
The same is true in politics, especially at our federal level. Americans can elect powerful pro-life politicians, but if they’ve got no one to work with when they get to Washington, DC, if they’ve got no allies, no reliable staffers, no support—what can we really expect them to get done?
Saurabh Sharma, President of American Moment, is working to improve Washington and build community for the leaders who need it. We speak with Saurabh today on Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement, the stakes for pro-life law and policymaking, the work of American Moment and its mission and priorities, and potential post-Roe politics.
Americans United for Life
https://aul.org