How Pro-Life is Your State?

January 22, 2011 marked the 38th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision to legalize abortion in this country. As a result, over 51 million babies have lost their lives to abortion. Even though abortion remains legal, there are states in this country who haven taken action to pass laws and set up strict regulations to protect life from conception to its end.

Since 2006, the pro-life organization, Americans United for Life (AUL) has ranked each state according to their legislative and policy issues concerning abortion, protecting the unborn, end-of-life issues, bioethics and health care.

According to the AUL's Life List Executive Summary, there are five primary laws that are looked at according to each sate. Such laws include:

• Laws relating to abortion (parental consent, clinic regulations, etc.)
• Laws protecting unborn victims of violence
• Laws dealing with biotechnology (cloning, stem-cell research, etc.)
• Laws concerning end-of-life issues
• Laws protecting the freedom of conscience for health care providers, institutions and payers

The top ten pro-life states, according to the above criteria are:

1. Oklahoma
2. Louisiana
3. Pennsylvania
4. Arkansas
5. Texas
6. Nebraska
7. Missouri
8. North Dakota
9. South Dakota
10. Georgia

At the bottom of the list are:

• New Jersey
• Vermont
• Hawaii
• California
• Washington

Americans United for Life (AUL) has been committed to defending human life through vigorous judicial, legislative, and educational efforts at both the federal and state levels since it became the first national pro-life organization in 1971. AUL has been involved in every life-related case before the Supreme Court since Roe v. Wade and has a vision for "a nation in which everyone is welcomed in life and protected in law."

Dr. Charmaine Yoest serves as AUL's President and CEO. Dr. Yoest has a Ph.D. in Politics from the University of Virginia and began her career in the White House during the Reagan Administration. She served as Senior Advisor to the 2008 Huckabee for President Campaign and was the only pro-life leader chosen to testify during the hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayer. She is married to her husband, Jack and they have five children.

Senator Tom Coburn has said of AUL, "Long known to me as the ‘legal arm of the pro-life movement,’ they work tirelessly to help legislatures pass the best pro-life laws possible, and then to defend those laws in court against attacks by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.”

Recently, in 2010, AUL launched Advocates for Life - groups of pro-life students in law schools such as Harvard, Columbia, Georgetown, George Mason, Notre Dame, Fordham. Boston College, and St. Thomas.

AUL states that, "Roe v. Wade will not be reversed, nor will a human life amendment be passed, until the cultural consciousness is awakened to the reality that abortion is not an easy, quick-fix solution. Rather, abortion is a violent deception that results in two victims: the child whose life is destroyed, and the woman who suffers devastating physical and psychological harm."

Currently, AUL is fighting to defund Planned Parenthood who receives hundreds of millions of our tax dollars each year. To sign their petition to help defund Planned Parenthood, click here.