Americans United for Life’s 2016 Report: Triumphs and Tragedies

hillary-clinton-planned-parenthood Alex Brandon—AP
Alex Brandon/AP
Dr. Susan Berry

Democrats have for the first time in their Party’s history fully embraced a platform against the right to life – and here is why.

In 2016, 43 states addressed more than 360 legislative measures related to abortion, a large part of the reason why the abortion industry – which profits from the procedure – is campaigning very heavily for abortion extremist Hillary Clinton.

In a newly released report, Americans United for Life (AUL) looks at the legislative triumphs and setbacks on the issue of life during the past year.

Many of the legislative responses in 2016 came as a result of Planned Parenthood’s baby parts scandal. Last summer, a series of undercover videos exposed the abortion giant’s apparent practices of selling the body parts of babies it aborts on the open market and altering the position of babies during abortion to harvest their most intact organs.

AUL observes in its report that, in addition to protecting the unborn, state lawmakers worked in 2016 to ensure American taxpayers were not forced to pay for abortions, and to eliminate funding for abortion business Planned Parenthood, which receives a half-billion taxpayer dollars per year.

Legislators also dealt with 20-week abortion restrictions, bans on dismemberment abortions, pre-abortion ultrasound requirements, support for alternatives to abortion, the treatment of aborted babies’ deceased bodies, conscience rights for healthcare providers against abortion, and prohibitions on abortions desired due to the gender, race, or genetic abnormality of the unborn baby.

Additionally – and in response to the case of convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell, who performed abortions for decades in his “house of horrors” – states pushed ahead with higher health and safety standards to protect women in abortion clinics who have been abandoned by politicians subservient to the abortion lobby.

“Across the country, state legislators showed up for work, acting on their heartfelt concerns for mothers and their unborn children, and in response to the cold, hard facts that abortion harms women,” said AUL’s acting president and senior counsel, Clarke Forsythe.

To assist lawmakers taking on the issue of protecting life, AUL designed models to address how the abortion industry uses babies who die in abortion as either trash or gruesome “treasure” to be sold for profit, and to challenge pre-natal discrimination, i.e., aborting a baby due to gender, race, or disability.

“Legislators concerned with the abortion industry’s growing track record of careless, harmful and even abusive behavior toward women and their unborn children worked to sever the industry’s ties to taxpayer resources,” says AUL staff attorney Anna Paprocki.

She summarizes some of the state legislation on life during 2016:

In fact, at least 27 states considered measures related to federal and state funding of abortion or abortion providers. We saw the continuation of state measures that mirror the enduring legacy of the federal Hyde Amendment, preventing tax dollars from paying for abortion. Legislators also responded to the abuses by the abortion mega-provider, Planned Parenthood, which takes more than $500 million in taxpayer dollars each year. There was a surge in measures considered and enacted that would ensure the integrity of states’ Medicaid and other healthcare programs against the predatory abortion industry.

The issue of life, however, also had its setbacks in 2016.

“While 2016 abortion-related measures were overwhelmingly life-affirming there was a noticeable continued increase in measures seeking to undermine existing state law and policies regulating or limiting abortion,” Paprocki observes. “Abortion advocates worked to roll back the laws protecting women from abortion industry abuses, opting to work for a world in which abortion is less safe, more frequent, and taxpayer funded.”

States addressed at least 40 measures that undercut existing laws protecting the right to life, or supporting the so-called “right” to abortion.

The Democrat Party has made the right to abortion a primary focus of its platform, which includes particular support for Planned Parenthood against defunding efforts, and a vow to expand taxpayer funding of abortion:

Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has said unborn babies have no constitutional rights and that she would work to repeal the Hyde Amendment so that federal taxpayer funds would pay for abortions on demand, particularly for low-income black and Latino women who use Medicaid:

In a press release, the Democratic Convention Committee said about its specific inclusion of Planned Parenthood’s abortion business in the latest draft of its platform:

The platform goes further than previous Democratic platforms on women’s reproductive rights. It champions Planned Parenthood health centers and commits to push back on all Republican efforts to defund it. The platform also vows to oppose, and seek to overturn, all federal and state laws that impede a woman’s access to abortion, including by repealing the Hyde Amendment. It also strongly supports the repeal of harmful restrictions that obstruct women’s access to healthcare around the world, including the Global Gag Rule and the Helms Amendment, which bars US assistance to other countries that provide safe, legal, abortion.

Using its common narrative that abortion is “women’s healthcare,” Planned Parenthood has been supporting Hillary Clinton since the primary. The abortion industry giant plans to spend $20 million to elect her as the next president.

Nevertheless, a recent Marist poll shows an overwhelming consensus among Americans wanting significant restrictions placed on abortion – even among those Americans who say they are “pro-choice.”

The poll of 1,700 Americans found only 12 percent of participants said abortion should be “available to a woman any time during her pregnancy.” The survey was commissioned by Catholic charitable organization Knights of Columbus.

According to the survey, 81 percent of Americans favor some kind of restriction, including limits on abortion after the first three months, as well as a ban on public funding of abortion.

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