RH Reality Check Glossary

While not officially a Roman Catholic organization, ALL’s philosophy and approach is explicitly based on some of the conservative interpretation of Church teachings. Their commitments to the most extreme elements of this philosophy set them apart from many of their peers, who are often unwilling to publicly admit their affinity to more controversial positions like their opposition to contraception.

In their own words: “ALL is opposed to all abortion, contraception and other threats to the human person and the family. This total protection approach separates us from many of the other major groups. ALL will not support abortion-related legislation that contains exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother, fetal deformity, or other such condition.”

Other ideological positions of note include vehement opposition to sex education, in vitro fertilization, and stem cell research.

The organization dedicates itself to presenting what they call “…the truth about the abortifacient nature of certain forms of so-called contraception and point out that the dangerous practice of birth control is a gateway to abortion.” Methods under attack by ALL include the pill, IUD, Depo-Provera, and emergency contraception. Furthermore, the organization proudly claims to be the only national pro-life group to oppose condom advertisements on TV.

Additionally, ALL fights against providing sexuality education to youth. They support “…only educational programs built on absolute standards of right and wrong, that teach sexual morality in the context of leading children toward the practice of virtue and that avoid examining the subject of sex in any concrete, detailed or descriptive way in the classroom or other public setting.”

The organization officially “takes no position on the death penalty,” contradicting their rhetoric about protecting human life in all cases.

ALL advances their anti-family planning mission through political advocacy, grassroots work, youth outreach, and media. A signature event of ALL is their national t-shirt day. Annually, the organization encourages supporters—including school-aged children—to wear a t-shirt with an anti-abortion message. The organization also publishes Celebrate Life Magazine and is responsible for the provocative “Deadly Dozen” ads (viewable under the “Campaigns” section in this link).

ALL has moved its work beyond the borders of the United States: led by board member Robert Sassone, ALL has been granted NGO status by the United Nations. They claim to have helped establish the ultra-conservative European organization, World Youth Alliance. (WYA report from Catholics for a Free Choice)

Associated organizations of ALL include Rock for Life, STOPP, Crusade for the Defense of Our Catholic Church, and a network of local and regional anti-family planning organizations.

Rock for Life is an organization that encourages youth to take an in-your-face approach to anti-family planning protesting. Claiming that “young people are being deceived and manipulated by the music industry,” the organization pursues their mission through the Christian music industry, largely targeting punk rock and hardcore bands and venues. They include the March of Dimes, SIECUS, and the UNFPA on their list of what they call the “dark side.”

STOPP, which is a rough acronym for “Stop Planned Parenthood,” is an organization dedicated entirely to dismantling Planned Parenthood family planning programs and reproductive health centers across the country. It claims to be an “organization of parents,” and is led by Jim Sedlak, who also spends time as an author for various Human Life International publications.

For a much more thorough look at ALL and their work, check out Catholics for a Free Choice's Opposition Notes piece, "American Life League: More interested in making a statement than making a difference."

The Centre for Bio-Ethical reform has two missions:  criminalize abortion and influence public opinion so as to spread anti-choice messages.  It is based in California, however it has offshoots in other countries such as Canada.

The Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) is aimed at college campuses.  As you can see from this link, the CBR takes its agenda beyond international borders.  (Also note the members ofthe anti-choice student group at the University of Calgary are reading awkwardly off of prepared statements to the media).  The Matt 28:20 project is a similar campaign aimed at religious organizations.

The CBR uses the threat of litigation to frighten and immobilize pro-choice groups who protest the GAP on the grounds that it constitutes hate material, among other criticisms of the CBR's activities.  In a section entitled Lawsuits, CBR director Gregg Cunningham gleefully taunts pro-choice activists and other potential critics of his organization.  "You lie [about the activities of the CBR] and we sue. If we sue, we win. If you don’t believe us, just try us."

“Following the promulgation of the Pope's encyclical, The Culture of Life Foundation & Institute was founded in the United States to promote the concepts behind the Evangelium Vitae. It was recognized and blessed by the Pope in 1997."

While CLF does not provide any specific information on its inception, it is noteworthy that it incorporated with the IRS around the same time as C-FAM, and that the two organizations officially joined forces in 2003. Austin Ruse, then-president of C-FAM, was chosen to serve as president of CLF and continues today in that role for both organizations. The organization also shares other staff and board members from C-FAM and PRI.

CLF considers itself a social policy research institute “dedicated to gathering and disseminating the facts and science related to the culture of life broadly understood.” On their web site, they write “The Culture of Life Foundation places special emphasis on affecting public policy, therefore we regularly present our personnel and information to policy makers in Washington D.C. and around the country.” Except that they don't: other than their weekly newsletter, Culture & Cosmos, there are few signs that CLF does anything of note in the public sphere.

Issues of focus for the organization include: “bioethics, the family, marriage, popular culture, and the dignity of the human person.” At the same time, talk about capital punishment, nuclear proliferation, and poverty are conspicuously absent from their “culture of life” rhetoric. CLF maintains an ultraconservative webzine and blog—“The Fact Is” and “The Truth Is,” respectively—that aggregate thoughts from others in their camp.

Feminists for Life is an anti-choice organization based in the United States which builds upon the "feminist" spin nauseatingly woven into some anti-choice rhetoric. "Women deserve better than abortion," their literature states. Instead of calling for improvements to sexual health education and access to contraception in order to prevent unintended pregnancy, they call for women to carry to term and parent after pregnancy has already occurred. Their recommendations glorify motherhood as a role for women and condemn women to the natural functioning of their bodies. This is reflected in their president Serrin Foster's assertion that Feminists for Life and pro-choice activists should work together in order to make the world more "woman-friendly": i.e. call for more day care etc. This action in and of itself is not negative, however, Foster fails to acknowledge that a pro-choice activist supports the full range of choices that women have when they are pregnant. Pro-choice activists will not work with Feminists for Life because they only support one choice: carrying a pregnancy to term (after which point the mother is strongly encouraged to parent). Foster's speech on this topic and other "recommended reading" from Feminists for Life may be found here.

Feminists for Life appropriate important figures from feminist history. For example, they argue that Susan B. Anthony would take their side in the debate on abortion today because in her time she condemned it as harmful to women and families. To unsuspecting online researchers who happen across this article and are less able to place it into historical context, it presents a reasonably sound objection to abortion on "feminist" grounds. However, feminist historians will note that in Susan B. Anthony's time and location (late 19th century in the United States), contraceptive methods were not readily available and so the results of marital indiscretions could be much more visible and therefore disastrous. Abortion was illegal and so often was the choice of women who were pregnant out of wedlock or whose partners did not or could not acknowledge the relationship publicly. From the perspective of many married women, the availability of abortion in a community precluded pre- and extramarital intercourse. Thus, privileged upper class women such as Susan B. Anthony and her early feminist colleagues generally viewed abortion as a threat, denouncing it in their organizing.

Since the late 19th century, there have been many technological and social movements that have altered the circumstances under which women can make reproductive choices. The invention of the Pill, the increased numbers of women who work outside the home, and the Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade are just a few of the changes that have taken place in the 100+ years since Susan B. Anthony's day. So, Feminist for Life's basis of their "feminist" claim that abortion is bad for women because Susan B. Anthony said so in 1889 has little or no relevance in 2009. Furthermore, it is still possible to view Susan B. Anthony's claims as feminist within the context of their time - in a time when families were larger, labour unions had yet to organise and women could not earn their own discretionary wages, it was very important for women to ensure that their husbands were not spending their wages on the costs associated with extramarital affairs. When viewed in context, their condemnation of abortion may be considered acceptable on feminist grounds.

With an annual payroll of $50 million, Focus on the Family is an extensive organization. At its core, it is a media organization, spending more than $10 million annually on film/video production services and providing publications and broadcasts in more than 100 countries around the world.

Focus on the Family Action is organized as a 501 (c)(4) non-profit, allowing Dobson to engage in more overt electoral activities, independent of both Focus on the Family and FRC.

Through its media empire and action arm, Focus on the Family advocates primarily for a strict, conservative Christian view of the family (characterized by a strong father figure and stay-at-home mom), and a “culture of life”. They are against homosexuality and perceived “judicial activism,” defined narrowly as judicial decisions contrary to the beliefs of Dobson and other conservative Christians. Like many of their peers, they are noticeably inconsistent in their commitment to a “culture of life” by failing to take a stand on capital punishment and nearly condemning the use of contraception that could prevent unwanted pregnancies and the likely recourse to abortion that accompanies them.

Affiliate organizations include:

• National Right to Life Committee Educational Trust Fund

• National Right to Life PAC

• National Right to Life Conventions Inc.

• Horatio R. Storer Foundation

The National Right to Life Committee was founded in 1973 in response to the United States Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. Since then, NRLC has grown to represent over 3000 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

NRLC is a political organization focused on lobbying and citizen advocacy. Their main tools include grassroots initiatives, model legislation, testifying in front of Congressional and state legislative bodies, and campaigning for “pro-life” candidates. While NRLC is often quoted in the media, they do not appear to actively seek the spotlight like other similar organizations. Instead, they focus on changing the law through policy advocacy in Congress and State legislatures.

In 1999, Fortune magazine placed NRLC number 8 on its “Power 25” list, which ranks the most influential lobbying groups in Washington, D.C. While the organization’s goal is a constitutional ban on abortion, it has branched out to address issues of death with dignity and what they consider “infanticide.”

A current NRLC legislative initiative is the “Will to Live Project” which is intended to protect “…your own life and the lives of your family members when you cannot speak for yourselves.” To the same end, and in light of the Terri Schiavo case, NRLC is also promoting sample legislation to “Prevent Starvation and Dehydration.” Additionally, they are focused on human cloning and what they call “fetus farms”.

Ironically, NRLC has no position—or at least not one easily found or promoted—regarding the death penalty. In fact, they promote legislation that could actually be used to justify criminal death sentences. For instance, in what they call the “Unborn Victims of Violence Act”, addressing a crime committed against a pregnant woman would be addressed as a crime against two people—the woman and the fetus. That is to say, if a pregnant woman is murdered and her fetus does not survive, the perpetrator should be tried for two separate murders. And in some states, the death penalty could be applied.

Beyond its political and electoral activities, NRLC has extended its reach into the judiciary. A recent case of theirs was filed by a Wisconsin affiliate challenging federal campaign finance laws; the decision is pending. The suit is based on the affiliate’s challenge to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that prohibits “electioneering communications” 30 to 60 days prior to a primary or general election. Specifically, the affiliate filed suit in order to legally run a grassroots campaign urging Senators Feingold and Kohl to oppose any judicial nominee filibuster. Because Feingold was a candidate at the time that the organization wanted to launch the campaign, the law prohibited the running of their ads.

Other cases of interest for NRLC include Oregon’s Death with Dignity law and another on so-called “partial birth” abortions.

Currently, Operation Rescue's tactics include protesting clinics, pressing charges against abortion providers and making public comments on the legality of abortion. The organization lists the closing of two Kansas abortion clinics and a still-running campaign against the practice of George Tiller, MD among it's accomplishments. OR's efforts against Tiller have depicted the doctor, who runs a clinic providing abortions in Wichita, as a corrupt abortionist profiting from his unsanitary "abortion mill." OR's blog posts very regularly about their accusations toward Tiller. Earlier in 2007, OR tried unsuccessfully to convene a grand jury to investigate crimes they allege that Tiller has commited. Tiller has recently been taken to small claims court for an alleged hit and run involving a protester outside his clinic. OR is also responsible for "Truth Trucks", which are semi-trucks displaying enlarged images of allegedly aborted fetuses on their panels.

OR's origins lie with founder Randall Terry and his "rescues" outside of Binghamton, NY clinics, in which he and his protestors intimidated women and blocked their entrance to the clinics. At this time OR developed tactics such as barricading clinic doors with protestors' limp bodies, preventing women from exiting their cars outside of clinics and shouting at patients and staff.

The organization currently known as Operation Rescue was originally known as Operation Rescue West, and was a San Diego affiliate of the national organization. When Flip Benham's expanded the focus of OR to many larger topics in 1998, Operation Rescue West broke off and dedicated itself solely to radical activism against abortion rights. Newman opened "national headquarters" in Wichita, KS and has continued protests in the same vein as OR's protests of the mid-1980s.

Operation Rescue West lost their 401(c)(3) tax-exempt status in 2006 as part of a larger crack-down by the IRS against illegal political involvement by charities. They now go by the name Operation Rescue.

PFL was founded as a small non-profit by Fr. Lee Kaylor, a priest from San Francisco. It was Pavone, however, who aggressively grew the small organization into a media powerhouse and aggressive political advocate with an international presence. PFL is recognized and revered by the Vatican, and it was Cardinal John O’Connor—one of the most connected Catholics in recent years to both the Vatican and United States politics—who authorized Pavone as the leader. In 2003, the organization was granted NGO consultative status to the Economic and Social Council at the United Nations.

While their primary mission is to educate and mobilize Catholic clergy as anti-family planning activists, their tactics are often aggressive and overtly political.

PFL boldly advertises its anti-abortion ideology and rallies against family planning among the general public and elected officials. They have spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-abortion media campaigns that include advertisements on radio, television, billboards, and in newspapers.

In addition to their extensive media push and overt campaigning for “pro-life” candidates, PFL pursues priests around the world with the hope that newly-converted activists will influence the faithful on a large scale. They hold seminars for priests, send newsletters to over 45,000 clergy, and make videos, tapes, bulletin inserts, and homily materials available. PFL produces and distributes graphic images of aborted fetuses. Their website provides links to order signs and other printed materials, as well as providing their own catalog of online images.

In March of 2005, Pavone founded a new and separate pro-life order of priests “dedicated to the formation and training of priests, deacons, brothers and seminarians who will devote themselves fully to the proclamation of the Gospel of Life.” Based in Amarillo, Texas, this new entity known as Missionaries of the Gospel of Life is being run under the direction of Bishop John W. Yanta.

Most recently, PFL launched the “National Silent No More Awareness Campaign.” This effort is a joint project of PFL and NOEL. Its aim is to have women share stories via the web regarding their abortion experiences.