WASHINGTON, D.C.— The World Health Organization declared September 28, 2023, to be the “International Safe Abortion Day.”

“Abortion is never safe for an unborn child and can jeopardize the life of her mother,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “Unlimited abortion is contrary to the very idea of safety.”

For years, the World Health Organization, along with the abortion industry, has pushed for unlimited abortion on an international scale—even in countries where clean water and access to basic medical care are unrealized.

Tobias continued, “Pushing abortion on women who need clean water, nutrition, and basic healthcare recklessly ignores real needs in favor of international politics.”

Chemical abortions using mifepristone and misoprostol are often recommended in parts of the world where surgical abortions are unavailable. However, the complications of chemical abortions—which can include severe hemorrhaging—require a medical infrastructure that includes facilities for surgery, access to ultrasound equipment, and the capacity to provide blood transfusions. This level of medical care is often unavailable in the developing world.

“Women need access to basic healthcare, adequate nutrition, and good obstetrical care throughout pregnancy, during delivery, and after birth,” stated Tobias. “Evidence shows that the lack of modern medicine and quality healthcare results in higher maternal mortality.”

In June, National Right to Life and Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Global Outreach (MCCL GO) released new findings on international healthcare needs for the first 1000 days of life during the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland.

The document, 1 to 1000: How to ensure the health and flourishing of women, children, and society, draws attention to the tragic number of maternal deaths, estimated at 287,000 during 2020, with,

[M]ost of them in the developing world and especially in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. These deaths can be prevented with basic care before, during and after childbirth—including antenatal care and nutrition, skilled birth attendants, emergency obstetric care, sanitation and clean water.

The document, produced by Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Global Outreach (MCCL GO), a U.N.-accredited non-governmental organization, was released jointly with the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund, a U.N.-accredited non-governmental organization.

The document is available in English and in Spanish.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

State Affiliates of National Right to Life Commended for Their Work as They Prepare for Upcoming Legislative Sessions

WASHINGTON, D.C.— National Right to Life praised the work of its state affiliates and pro-life legislatures for introducing hundreds of pro-life laws this past legislative session—including bills protecting preborn babies after six weeks of pregnancy.

“In the first legislative session post-Dobbs, we saw unprecedented results in our efforts to protect preborn children,” stated Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “The pro-life laws passed in legislatures not only provide protections for unborn children but also show that the child in the womb is a welcome member of our society.”

“We thank and praise our state affiliates and pro-life state legislators for their untiring efforts in introducing these laws and seeing many of them pass,” said Tobias.

Tobias continued, “We also thank pro-life governors for signing these bills and state attorneys general who have defended them in the courts.”

State laws that passed this legislative session include bills protecting babies throughout pregnancy including protecting babies after six weeks of pregnancy—with Florida’s law also providing $25 million dollars for pregnancy resources and material support. In addition, Idaho’s HB 242 prevents an abortion—whether surgical or procured using abortion drugs—from being performed on a minor without the knowledge of her parents or guardians. Additionally, states such as Mississippi provide emergency baby drop-offs at emergency services locations.

Many of the laws, including those passed by Florida and West Virginia, include exceptions in circumstances such as life of the mother, rape, incest, and medical emergencies.

“The laws passed in these states will protect many more babies than would have been possible before the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs,” stated Tobias.

In Dobbs, the question before the Court was whether all prohibitions on abortions performed pre-viability were unconstitutional. Ninety-five percent (95%) of all abortions occur before 15 weeks. The earliest known surviving premature infant was born at 21 weeks and one-day gestation.

“The laws passed in this last legislative session are in deep contrast to laws being pushed by pro-abortion groups and their Democratic supporters in Congress, state legislatures, and the Biden-Harris Administration,” stated Tobias. “The Biden-Harris Administration and the Democratic Party have an extreme pro-abortion agenda that is out of step with the majority of Americans.”

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— On Thursday, September 14, Vice President Kamala Harris began her tour of colleges and universities to promote the administration’s priorities which include unlimited abortion.

“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have made unlimited abortion throughout pregnancy a priority issue,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “With the Biden-Harris Administration, Big Abortion has had a golden ticket letting them fulfill an ever-growing wish list.”

Since its early days, the Biden-Harris Administration prioritized a radical abortion agenda: unlimited abortions for any reason, even as a method of family planning and even late in pregnancy—right up until birth—and using tax dollars to pay for it. The Biden-Harris Administration employed a whole-of-government approach to promoting abortion, using every lever of power at its disposal to make abortions more available and more common, with no thought of the innocent unborn children who would die.

In a recent interview on Face the Nation, CBS’s Margaret Brennan repeatedly asked Kamala Harris up to what point in pregnancy did she no longer support abortion. Harris never answered the question.

“The Biden-Harris abortion agenda is extreme and out of step with the majority of Americans,” said Tobias. “The administration’s tone-deaf response on the issue shows once again just how extreme Democrats are.”

Joe Biden’s presidential record on abortion can be found here.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— On Tuesday, September 12, National Right to Life released a white paper challenging the media coverage of the decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in August.

In its decision, the Fifth Circuit determined that when the FDA loosened regulations in 2016 and 2021 regarding the drug mifepristone, it did so unlawfully, failing to give adequate consideration to demonstrated safety issues with the drug. The decision will not impact the distribution of the abortion drug Mifeprex (generic: mifepristone) until the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in.

“While most reporters accurately reported the recent decision by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, they generally failed to report the legal reasoning and medical evidence backing this decision, making it appear to be simply one more volley in a long-running political controversy,” stated Randall K. O’Bannon, Ph.D. director of education and research for National Right to Life and author of the white paper. “Anyone taking the time to read the decision can see that the court had ample reason to rein in the FDA.”

O’Bannon continued, “It is clear from the decision that the FDA put abortion politics over medical science and the interests of women.”

In his analysis of the court decision, Dr. O’Bannon reviews the original protocols put in place when mifepristone was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration. However, the FDA, bowing to pressure from pro-abortion groups, loosened the rules governing the use and distribution of the drug. Dr. O’Bannon notes that the Fifth Circuit:

• Found that there was harm to both patients and the doctors who had to treat them.
• Used the FDA’s own data against it.
• Made it clear that the courts, by law, have the duty to question FDA decisions when the agency fails to follow its procedures and ignores evidence of safety issues.
• Found that the FDA violated its statutory obligations.
• Found that the FDA failed to collect data on the collective impact of all the protocol changes it proposed in 2016.
• Criticized the FDA for using a lack of data—that the agency itself failed to collect—to justify dropping safeguards.

“Most reporters failed to read the decision and reported only the result,” stated O’Bannon. “But the court’s decision was firmly grounded in the FDA’s actions and the agency’s failure to abide by its own rules and regulations.”

Mifepristone is used in combination with misoprostol, a prostaglandin, to cause an abortion. Mifepristone blocks progesterone, leading to the death of the unborn baby, while the second drug, misoprostol, causes powerful, painful uterine contractions to expel the dead or dying baby.

FDA records include more than two dozen deaths and thousands of complications associated with the use of the mifepristone/misoprostol chemical abortion method. Thousands of “adverse events” are on record with the FDA and include serious infections, severe hemorrhaging, and the rupture of previously undiscovered ectopic pregnancies.

What the Media Missed in Its Coverage of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Decision Regarding Mifepristone can be accessed here.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, Oregon Right to Life (ORTL), the state affiliate of National Right to Life, sued for relief from Oregon’s requirement that employee health insurance plans provide coverage for abortion.

“As a pro-life organization, no one questions that we hold deep moral objections to abortion,” said ORTL executive director Lois Anderson. “We are only asking for what every American expects, to be free to live according to our conscience and operate our organization according to our sincerely held belief that unborn human beings deserve protection from the violence of abortion.”

The requirement was part of Oregon’s 2017 Reproductive Health Equity Act (“RHEA”). The RHEA is like California’s abortion-coverage mandate which federal courts recently held violates the religious liberty of objecting churches under the Supreme Court’s Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021) decision.

In Fulton, the Supreme Court determined that if the government allows exceptions to laws burdening religious belief, the government must show a “compelling” reason for not allowing exceptions for religious objectors. In Fulton and the California church cases, the courts held that there was no compelling reason to deny exceptions for the religious objectors.

James Bopp, Jr., general counsel for National Right to Life and counsel for ORTL, says: “Forcing pro-life Oregon Right to Life to fund abortion insurance is outrageous. Legislative testimony made ORTL and its opposition known to the legislature, but it didn’t care. Fortunately, the First Amendment protects ORTL. ORTL should get an exception from Oregon’s abortion-insurance mandate just as California churches recently got one from California’s abortion-insurance mandate.”

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.