| Wednesday, July 27, 2011 IN THIS ISSUE: More than 80 pro-life measures pass in the states to roll back Roe v. Wade, but pro-abortion policies are recommended for President Obama’s Health Care plan. “States enact record wave
of anti-abortion laws”
– Associated Press  Above right: Dr. Charmaine Yoest speaks in front of Planned Parenthood Across America, it becomes clearer after every legislative session that Roe v. Wade can be repealed. But in a remarkable course of events this year, numerous media outlets noted that records were broken on all types of pro-life bills as they moved through their respective House and Senate chambers across the fifty states.
Front and center in the fight to achieve cutting edge, pro-life legislation is AUL, which created Defending Life, a blueprint of pro-life legislation available each year for activists and legislators. And AULA works to achieve passage of the bills, traveling across the country to fine tune the legislation, to testify regarding its efficacy and to build working coalitions for passage. In fact, according to the AP, more than 80 pro-life measures passed during the current legislative sessions, many of them AULA efforts. In a nationwide article, AUL President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest discussed key trends in legislation, including late-term abortion bans, medically sound clinic regulations, and parental notification requirements for abortions involving young girls living at home, among other types of bills. To see AUL’s complete model legislation click here. Abortion in the current political climate can be de-funded and can be rolled back over time, said Dr. Yoest. The High Court seems to agree with AUL. The AP reporters noted that “the Supreme Court, which established the nationwide right to abortion in its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, has made clear in subsequent rulings that states can restrict the procedure after viability.” "We talk about accumulating victories," Dr. Yoest said. "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." ![[object Object]](http://action.aul.org/images/content/pagebuilder/11657.jpg) As AUL predicted: Abortion Advocates Controlled Development of the Health Care Coverage Every American will be Forced to Buy
 When President Obama’s team laid the framework for their nationalized health care plan, AUL objected to the way in which some health care guidelines would be set. Looking at plans for “preventive care for women,” Obama’s team delegated selection of what will be defined as required coverage to the Institute of Medicine, which stacked the deck for abortion by inviting abortion advocacy groups to make recommendations.
Not surprisingly, the pro-abortion advocates included the abortion-inducing drug ella in the insurance plans that will be forced on all Americans.
“No American will be able to choose an insurance plan that does not include the abortion-inducing drug ella under the IOM plan,” said AUL staff counsel Anna Franzonello, who testified before the IOM against such a move. ![[object Object]](http://action.aul.org/images/content/pagebuilder/11636.png) At left: Anna Franzonello, Staff Counsel for AUL. Talking with Politico after the IOM guidelines were released, Franzonello noted that the conscience rights of people and health care providers are also at stake in the plan. We urge HHS to have these recommendations be about preventing diseases not about ending pregnancies,” said Franzonello. “We believe that Americans who oppose these drugs should be able to choose an insurance plan that does not cover them,” and provision must be made to protect the conscience rights of individuals and medical professionals.
Click here to read the entire Politico article or click here to hear Franzonello discuss the IOM guidelines on NPR. Attorney Kellie Fiedorek talked about the controversial guidelines on Fox. Click here to watch her debate. “Health Care Reform and Respect
for Human Life:
How the Process Failed” AUL Attorneys Featured in Notre Dame Law Journal.
At right: William Saunders speaks to the University Faculty for Life conference at Notre Dame. President Obama and his administration did push an abortion agenda through the health care reform process, concluded AUL’s Sr. Vice President of Legal Affairs William Saunders and AUL’s Franzonello in a detailed legal analysis now available. Saunders and Franzonello were published recently in the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy discussing the events and actions that culminated in the March 2010 signing of the health care reform law. Their 44-page report examined how the President used the health care reform process and executive orders to advance a pro-abortion agenda – the long-term consequences of which are not yet fully known. They write: “What may have been most significant for pro-life prospects in the long term was the failure of pro-life Democrats in the House and in the Senate to put their pro-life convictions ahead of party loyalty and the desire for health care reform. How this will play out in subsequent years (and elections) cannot, of course, be known with certainty. “But it badly strained—if it did not sever—inter-party pro-life cooperation with Republican pro- lifers. If that becomes permanent, or if it signals the end of a true pro-life element within the Democratic Party, the cost of health care reform may have been high indeed.” To read the entire analysis, click here.
In the News Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC), who co-sponsored the Capitol Hill news conference in which AUL’s report was praised as the blue print for investigating Planned Parenthood, was profiled in The Chapel Hill Herald where AUL’s efforts were discussed. To read more about the pro-life Congresswoman, click here. The influential Catholic News Agency did a story on AUL’s “The Case for Investigating Planned Parenthood” report, detailing the misuse of federal tax dollars. To read the widely placed article, click here. Baptist Press news services noted that AUL’s report is the most recent and extremely powerful Public Relations nightmare for Planned Parenthood. Read more here.
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