“Pregnancy Care Centers offer women real support and free services, unlike the abortion industry that makes millions while attacking the selfless volunteers who help women in their communities every day,” said AULA’s Jeanneane Maxon

WASHINGTON, (D.C.) – CONCORD, N.H. (01-27-12) – Americans United for Life Action Vice President of External Affairs and Corporate Counsel Jeanneane Maxon will testify later today in favor of a New Hampshire resolution commending the work of pregnancy care centers. The resolution is part of an effort from Americans United for Life and Care Net to recognize the life-changing work of pregnancy care centers that offer “compassionate and confidential counselling in a nonjudgmental manner regardless of their pregnancy outcomes,” said Maxon

The details of the hearing are as follows:

Who: Jeanneane Maxon, Vice President of External Affairs and Corporate Counsel for AUL Action

What: Testifying in favor of HCR31

When: Friday, 1-27-12, at 1:15 pm

Where: LOB 208 (Legislative Office Building, located directly behind the N.H. State House) 33 N State St., Concord, N.H.

During her remarks, Maxon will note the scope of pregnancy care centers’ work.

More than 2,500 pregnancy care centers operate across the United States including those in New Hampshire and provide invaluable free services to hundreds of thousands of women facing unplanned pregnancies.  In 2010, pregnancy care centers served over 2.3 million people.

Maxon said, “A conservative estimate of community cost savings for these services during 2010 is well over $100 million.  In addition to specific cost savings, pregnancy care centers drew on the help of 71,000 volunteers who performed an estimated 5,705,000 uncompensated hours of work in 2010.”

Uniquely qualified to testify on this issue, Maxon served as General Counsel for Care Net, a national network of pregnancy care centers, before joining AUL-AULA. To read her entire testimony, click here.

“Money is fungible,” says AULA’s Dr. Yoest. “Taxpayers should not be involuntary donors to the abortion industry and health care workers’ conscience rights must be protected.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. (10-13-11) – Americans United for Life Action President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest called on members of the U.S. House today and eventually the U.S. Senate to pass the Protect Life Act — a bill that addresses anti-life and anti-conscience threats in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health care law enacted in 2010. The measure is designed to deal with loopholes in the health care law that would allow some monies to subsidize abortions. AULA has been active on Capitol Hill on behalf of the bill to deal with the deficiencies in the health care law.

On Wednesday, White House advisors released a statement saying that they would recommend that the President veto the measure that is expected to pass the House later today. That would be a mistake, said Dr. Yoest.

“This vote applies longstanding federal law and policy to the pro-abortion health care law. It would ensure that no funds authorized or appropriated through the health care law can be used for abortion or insurance plans that provide abortion coverage,” said Dr. Yoest.  “We hope the Senate will follow suit.”

The Protect Life Act applies the principles of the Hyde Amendment – which prohibits federal funding for abortion and federal funding for insurance plans that cover abortion – to the ACA.  It replaces the ACA’s accounting gimmick in the state insurance exchanges (which the ACA requires be in place by 2014) and closes the loopholes in other funding streams that lack any statutory restrictions on using their funds directly for abortion.

“This bill also requires the pro-abortion advocates who claimed that the health care laws does not pay for abortions to prove it,” said Dr. Yoest.  “By writing the restriction into the law, the Protect Life Act protects against a court ordering that abortion must be funded, and does not rely on administrative rulings and agency interpretations, which are subject to change, to prohibit abortion funding.”

To read further analysis of this important taxpayer protection, click here.

Washington, D.C. (08-24-11) – Americans United for Life Action President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest said that second-guessing a policy as gruesome as forced abortion is “a moral imperative” and urged the Obama Administration to engage the Chinese government on the “deadly human toll that forced abortion is causing for millions of families.”

While in China, Vice President Joe Biden made a remark about the Chinese one-child policy, in which families in urban areas are permitted only one-child while families in rural areas may have two if the first child is a girl, an outcome considered less desirable. When families do not comply with the policy, forced abortions, sterilizations and other human rights abuses occur.

LifeNews reported Biden’s comments as follows: “But as I was talking to some of your leaders, you share a similar concern here in China.  You have no safety net,” Biden said in the prepared remarks. “Your policy has been one which I fully understand — I’m not second-guessing — of one child per family.  The result being that you’re in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people.  Not sustainable.”

A Biden spokesperson said Tuesday that the Vice President’s remarks were clearly about an economic issue and that the Obama Administration does not support the one-child policy.

“The Obama Administration should engage the Chinese government on the need to end such a gruesome practice as forced abortion,” said Dr. Yoest. “Already the country is suffering from the impact of the lack of girls that has been widely reported, along with the unintended economic consequences that the Vice President spoke about during his visit to China. This policy is morally, economically and socially harmful. The Obama Administration should second-guess such a policy and speak out about the human rights violations committed in its name.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. (08-01-11) – Americans will pay for abortion-inducing drugs and will find their conscience rights trampled by the new Obama Administration guidelines for health care coverage adopted today, said Americans United for Life Action President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest.

As part of the health care reform process, AULA’s attorneys testified about the guidelines during hearings held by the Institute of Medicine. However, among the groups chosen to effectively help write the health care plan for all Americans was Planned Parenthood.

“Ideologically-driven recommendations became policy,” Dr. Yoest noted, “when the Obama Administration adopted the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations. Nearly every American will be forced to pay for the abortion-inducing drug ella in the name of ‘preventive care.’ In addition, the conscience rights of Americans who choose not to distribute life-ending prescriptions may be trampled.”

AULA attorneys noted that the Obama Administration has offered an exceedingly narrow conscience protection that leaves the majority of pro-life Americans vulnerable by so narrowly defining the concept of “religious employer,” that most religious schools, hospitals, and charitable organizations would be excluded from its protection.  Moreover, an organization such as AULA and its sister organization, Americans United for Life  – with pro-life missions, but no religious affiliation– are unquestionably unprotected by the Administration’s fig-leaf conscience protection.

“The preventive care provision of the health care law was intended to prevent diseases, not to end pregnancies,” said Yoest. “Americans United Life Action urges Congress to pass the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, H.R. 1179, to address today’s unconscionable mandate.”

To read more about the IOM guidelines, click here.

The Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee says, “Americans United for Life demonstrates egregious abuses of taxpayer funds by Planned Parenthood.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. (07-08-11) – Following the release of Americans United for Life’s groundbreaking analysis of the nation’s largest abortion business, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) issued a statement saying his subcommittee “should review the findings of this report and possibly hold a hearing on why taxpayers are funding Planned Parenthood with its record of abuse and violations of state laws.”

The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee is responsible for oversight of programs within its jurisdiction, and to investigate programs where necessary to ensure transparency.  Rep. Stearns made his comments after Americans United for Life Action distributed copies of AUL’s report, “The Case for Investigating Planned Parenthood,” following years of AUL legal team research, poring over more than 20 years of Planned Parenthood records, law enforcement reports, and other material. The report details evidence of systemic financial irregularities within the abortion giant – which receives more than $363 million in taxpayer funding each year.

Rep. Stearns said the following: “Taxpayers deserve accountability, and the report prepared by Americans United for Life demonstrates egregious abuses of taxpayer funds by Planned Parenthood. The legal team at Americans United for Life reviewed two decades of reports, audits, and financial statements regarding Planned Parenthood.”

“The report outlines Planned Parenthood’s record of violating state sexual assault and child abuse reporting laws, and of encouraging young girls to lie about their ages to circumvent state reporting laws. They also found as government funding of Planned Parenthood rises, so does the number of abortions. They found repeated instances of overbilling government health care programs.”

“I believe my Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee should review the findings of this report and possibly hold a hearing on why taxpayers are funding Planned Parenthood with its record of abuse and violations of state laws. The American people deserve a concrete reason for funding Planned Parenthood; a reason I do not believe exists.”

AULA President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest observed that momentum for defunding the abortion industry was a “grassroots phenomenon.”

A number of states have begun the process of defunding abortion providers, though the efforts in Indiana have garnered the most media attention. Those states include New Jersey, Kansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Texas and Ohio.

The report is one facet of AUL’s strategic plan to end taxpayer subsidies to the abortion industry, to protect women from the harms inherent in abortion, and to effectuate legal rights for all human beings. The AUL report documents known and alleged abuses by Planned Parenthood, and is intended to be a tool for use in investigating the nation’s largest abortion provider.

“It is time to find out what happens behind Planned Parenthood’s closed doors and to receive full accounting for the funds taken from American taxpayers to support the abortion industry,” said Dr. Yoest.

For more analysis and information about this project or to download a PDF version of the report, click here.

Americans United for Life Action Staff Counsel Mary Harned called on Governor John Lynch to sign the newly passed Parental Notification measure “to provide young girls with protection when facing pressure to have an abortion.”

Harned commended the 256 House members and 17 Senators who voted in favor of HB 329 that will require parental notification of a young girl’s parents before she can obtain an abortion.  Representative Kathy Souza introduced HB 329 in part to correct constitutional infirmities found in a 2003 parental notification law that was later repealed by the New Hampshire legislature.

“Parents who are in the dark about a minor’s pregnancy are robbed of the opportunity to discuss her options with her, including having her baby, and may fail to recognize her need for follow-up care and support if she has an abortion,” said Harned. “And just as importantly, parents may not be aware that their young daughters have become victims of sexual crimes. We know that some sexual predators have pressured their victims to have abortions to hide their crimes. Parents or guardians must be involved in such an important decision.”

For more information on parental involvement laws, go to:
http://www.aul.org/defending-life-abortion/.

To track the legislation’s progress throughout the session, check out AUL’s Legislative Watch for the bill’s current status at:
http://www.aul.org/legislative-resources/legislative-tracking/

WASHINGTON, D.C. (05-24-11) –Americans United for Life Action President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest called on the Alabama House to pass SB202 to “prohibit the use of federal subsidies for abortion coverage in the Alabama Exchange and to protect the American taxpayer from a forced participation with the abortion industry.”

Sen. Greg Reed introduced the measure, based on AUL model legislation, which prohibits insurance plans participating in the state exchange created in President Obama’s health care law from covering abortions. The Alabama Senate passed the bill decisively with a count of 25 to 7, and it now goes to the state House.

Alabama would be among 12 other states that have passed similar opt-out measures, including: Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia.

“Pregnancy is not a disease for which abortion is the cure,” Dr. Yoest observed. “Taxpayers should not be forced to underwrite the abortion industry in the name of health care.”

For more information on public funding restrictions on abortions, go to:
http://www.aul.org/defending-life-abortion/.

To track the legislation’s progress throughout the session, check out AUL’s Legislative Watch for the bill’s current status at:
http://www.aul.org/legislative-resources/legislative-tracking/

AUGUSTA, MAINE (05-03-11) – Americans United for Life Action Vice President for Government Affairs Dan McConchie will testify today on behalf of three, pro-life bills under consideration. McConchie said the bills being discussed before the Maine Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary are “commonsense measures to protect women and children.”

“This legislation provides women and the parents of pregnant minors every opportunity to be knowledgeably informed about an abortion procedure before choosing whether to undergo one,” said McConchie. “These commonsense bills will ensure all women get more information about the risks of abortion and ensure a young girl’s parents are involved in the decision-making process. These are bills everyone, regardless of views on abortion, can get behind and support.”

A run down of the bills, all of which are based on AUL legal models:

Sponsored by Rep. Tyler Clark, LD116 would require a 24-Hour reflection period prior to an abortion to protect women who may feel pressured into the procedure. (Click here to read the full testimony.)

Sponsored by Rep. Eleanor Espling, LD 924 would require that women be informed on the medical risks of the abortion procedure as well as require a 24-hour reflection period before an abortion. (Click here to read the full testimony.)

Sponsored by Rep. Dale Crafts, LD 1457 would strengthen consent laws for abortions for girls under the care of their parents or guardians to protect them from sexual predators who might try and arrange an abortion without the protection parents. (Click here to read the testimony.)

To track the bills as they proceed, go to AUL’s legislative tracker here.