Anti-Abortion Organizations & Charities
Hundreds of anti-abortion, or pro-life, organizations and charities exist in the U.S. They almost all oppose violence against abortion providers, but otherwise differ broadly in their strategies for abolishing, reducing or limiting abortion. Conservatives, Evangelicals and Roman Catholics are undeniably present in these groups, yet they encompass people from across the political spectrum and from many religious beliefs, including those with no religious beliefs. Anti-abortion groups fall into four sometimes overlapping, but distinct, categories of activism.
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Protests and Demonstrations
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The pro-life movement's most publicly visible and controversial sector focuses upon protests and demonstrations at abortion clinics and elsewhere. Like animal-rights organizations, some of these "direct action" groups debate and push the limits of the exact parameters of free speech and nonviolence. Yet Life Chain, one of the most widespread protest efforts, discourages signs with graphic imagery and asks participants for a commitment "to being peaceful, prayerful and polite, in word and deed."
Legal Work
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Americans United for Life, the National Right to Life Committee and Democrats for Life of America are among the nationwide groups that concentrate on action through state and federal legislatures and courts. Depending on the group, some of this work seeks directly to reverse or limit the scope of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion on request. Another issue of concern is asserting and protecting the legal rights of health-care professionals who conscientiously object to performing abortions.
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Public Outreach
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Many organizations primarily disseminate their abortion views and engage with other groups and members of the public who share some or all of their concerns. For example, the coalition Consistent Life, or CL, states its purpose as "serv[ing] the anti-violence community by connecting issues, building bridges, and strengthening the case against each kind of socially approved killing by consistently opposing them all." It specifically addresses abortion, poverty, racism, the death penalty, war and euthanasia. CL conducts its outreach primarily through participation in other groups' nonviolence conferences, advertisements in progressive magazines, a YouTube channel and Web and print publications including brochures, newsletters and books.
Abortion Alternatives
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Nonprofit organizations such as Birthright International, Catholic Charities USA, Heartbeat International and the Nurturing Network offer direct services to pregnant women and their families to help make parenting or adoption decisions possible. Feminists for Life organizes on college campuses to create services for pregnant and parenting students. Most abortion-alternatives groups profess neutrality on pregnancy prevention, or promote abstinence and natural family planning only. Yet polling data shows that 80 percent of U.S. pro-life followers advocate women's access to contraception. All Our Lives campaigns for policies fostering voluntary contraception, lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgendered (LGBT) rights, comprehensive sex education, male responsibility and prenatal and postnatal supports for women and children.
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References
Resources
- All Our Lives
- Catholic Charities USA: Find Your Local Catholic Charities Agency
- Democrats for Life of America
- Heartbeat International
- Libertarians for Life
- National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association: Family Planning Facts
- National Right to Life Committee
- The Nurturing Network
- Open Directory Project: Abortion: Pro-Life: Organizations
- Princeton University: Open Hearts, Open Minds & Fair-Minded Words
- Pro Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians
- Secular Prolife
- Photo Credit Keith Brofsky/Photodisc/Getty Images
