Americans United for Life
Americans United for Life is an American anti-abortion law firm and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1971, the group opposes abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, embryonic stem cell research, and certain contraceptive methods. The organization has led campaigns and been involved in judicial actions to prevent the passage and implementation of legislation that permits abortion, or may increase prevalence of abortion, including successfully defending the Hyde Amendment in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The group has been influential in the spread of so-called "Heartbeat" legislation across a number of American states.
Early history and mission
AUL was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1971, two years prior to the nationwide legalization of abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade. The organization's first chairman of the board was Unitarian minister and then-Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, George Huntston Williams. Initially the group was involved in the intellectual debate surrounding abortion, but in 1975 the founders reorganized it into a legal organization. One of the group's early areas of focus was on building a case to persuade the Supreme Court to overturn its 1973 ruling. In 1987 the group outlined their plan to overturn Roe v. Wade in a book titled Abortion and the Constitution: Reversing Roe v. Wade Through the Courts. AUL was inspired by efforts of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in its strategy to impact legislation. The organization is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, educational organization and public-interest law firm, with a specific interest in anti-abortion legislation. AUL's areas of legal interest include abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, stem cell research, and human cloning.During the first half of the 1970s, Eugene Diamond of AUL argued that abortion was dangerous to women's health. Charles Rice, a professor at Fordham Law School, who was active in the AUL argued that "birth control fever" had infected American society. Early on, the organization did not oppose all forms of abortion. Some within the organization also supported a legal right to contraceptives. When the organization did not decide to condemn all forms of abortion, a number of members left and formed the United States Coalition for Life.
Lobbying and litigation
AUL has supported bills to reduce the prevalence of abortion in the United States, including the Pregnant Women Support Act by United States Representative Lincoln Davis, which was introduced in 2006. In 1980, AUL played a key role in the Harris v. McRae decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the Hyde Amendment restricting federal funding of Medicaid abortions only to cases of life endangerment and determined that states participating in Medicaid were not required to fund medically necessary abortions for which federal reimbursement was unavailable as a result of the Hyde Amendment. Professor Victor Rosenblum, a board member of AUL, argued the case before the Supreme Court and the AUL Legal Defense Fund represented the amendment's chief sponsor Rep. Henry Hyde and others.The group has also been involved in legislative and judicial actions to prevent late-term abortions. Between 1997 and 2000, AUL worked with state attorneys general across the U.S. on partial birth abortion legislation. The group supported the passage of legislation in Virginia, banning a late-term abortion procedure. In 2006, the organization supported legislation that was proposed in 21 states, which aimed to require that doctors who perform late-term abortions inform their patients that the fetus might feel pain during the procedure. AUL vice president Daniel McConchie stated that the aim of the proposals was "humanizing the unborn". In 2007, the organization was involved in a Supreme Court case in which it helped to uphold the 2003 federal ban on partial-birth abortions.
Model legislation
AUL writes model legislation every year and makes it available on the web for state legislators and others involved in the policy process. The model legislation is also included in the organization's annual guidebook, Defending Life, which is provided to state legislators. The organization developed model legislation for state laws requiring that either a parent or doctor be informed before a minor's pregnancy is terminated. In addition, the organization developed language for state laws requiring doctors to advise patients about the health risks from abortions. AUL has also drafted model legislation for states to ban assisted suicide, human cloning and specific kinds of stem cell research, and an opt-out provision for states objecting to the "abortion mandate" in the 2009 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.In 2008, AUL produced the Pregnant Woman's Protection Act, a piece of model legislation aimed at providing greater rights to pregnant women to defend themselves from physical attack, especially in regard to domestic violence. In 2011, Mother Jones, a politically liberal magazine, published a report on Nebraska's Legislative Bill 232, a bill based on the Pregnant Women's Protection Act, that was critical of both the bill's wording and AUL's campaign to introduce the legislation. The report claimed that the bill's wording strongly advocates 'justifiable force', including homicide, against anyone that would be performing or seeking to perform legal abortion services. Mother Jones was also critical of similar bills, also based in part on the AUL model legislation for the Pregnant Woman's Protection Act, that were introduced in South Dakota and Iowa.