Latest Research & News

• Update: COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates and Abortion-Derived Cell Lines | September 30, 2020

  To view this chart as a PDF, see: COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates and Abortion-Derived Cell Lines   Updated January 4, 2021   Accurate information about the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines is essential, especially because many proposed candidates use newer molecular technologies for production of a viral vaccine. One concern regarding the ethical assessment of […]

• A Visual Aid to Viral Infection and Vaccine Production | June 15, 2020

  This is Issue 1 in CLI’s On Science. To view this report as a PDF, see: A Visual Aid to Viral Infection and Vaccine Production   Updated November 2020   Introduction As a result of the rapid spread of the new coronavirus technically known as SARS-CoV-2, the United States and other governments have begun crash […]

• The Coronavirus Pandemic and the Ethics of Triage | March 26, 2020

  by R. J. Snell, Ph.D. This paper can be viewed as a pdf here: The Coronavirus Pandemic and the Ethics of Triage   As the COVID-19 pandemic continues in Italy, many hospitals are overwhelmed with patients, necessitating difficult triage decisions that can seem like choosing who lives and who dies. In the United States, already […]

• Pro-Life Topics for Lawmakers Regarding Coronavirus | March 25, 2020

  This is Issue 43 in CLI’s On Point Series. To view this report as a PDF, see: On Point 43 Pro-Life Topics for Lawmakers Regarding Coronavirus.   Abortion advocates have found a new ally—COVID-19.   During this intensely stressful time, the vast majority of Americans are focused on protecting their health and the health of […]

• New Report Reveals Planned Parenthood Prioritizes Abortion Over Women’s Health | February 22, 2021

  Late Friday afternoon, Planned Parenthood released their annual report for 2019-2020. As always, this report contains glossy color photos and statements from Planned Parenthood leadership. However, the most interesting part of these annual reports is the data they include about Planned Parenthood’s services.  Planned Parenthood spokespeople and their allies in the media frequently argue that abortion constitutes a small fraction of their activities. However, the data contained in their annual reports tell a much, much different story.

• Addendum to Hyde @ 40: Analyzing the Impact of the Hyde Amendment | July 21, 2020

  An addendum has been written that provides information about state policy changes regarding taxpayer funding of abortion since 2016. This addendum also includes revised calculations of the number of lives saved by the Hyde Amendment. For the full 2016 report, please see Hyde @ 40: Analyzing the Impact of the Hyde Amendment   Addendum   […]

• An Analysis of How Medicaid Expansion in Kansas Will Affect Abortion Rates | February 19, 2020

  This is Issue 40 in CLI’s On Point Series. To view this report as a PDF, see: An Analysis of How Medicaid Expansion in Kansas Will Affect Abortion Rates.   Executive Summary   This month, the Kansas state legislature will consider legislation that would expand Kansas’ Medicaid program. Currently, the Kansas Medicaid program does not […]

• Guttmacher Report Shows Pro-Life Progress Continues as U.S. Abortion Rates Decline | September 18, 2019

  On Tuesday, the Guttmacher Institute released a report which included updated abortion data from the year 2017. This new Guttmacher data provides further evidence that America’s abortion rate continues its steady decline. Between 2011 and 2017, the U.S. abortion rate fell by approximately 20 percent. The long-term decline is even more impressive. Since peaking in […]

• Removal of “Sexual and Reproductive Health” Language from UN Resolution: What the Media Got Wrong | April 24, 2019

  Many mainstream media outlets are unfairly criticizing the Trump administration for removing the phrase “Sexual and Reproductive Health” from a United Nations resolution on sexual violence. Such a policy change was necessary to ensure that this resolution did not support legal abortion. Many organizations affiliated with the United Nations including the United Nations Population Fund […]

• Hundreds of Innocent Lives Depend on the Maine State Legislature | April 10, 2019

  The eyes of Maine and the entire country are on the Maine state legislature this week. On Tuesday, the Committee on Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services in the State House approved L.D. 820 by a 7-5 vote. This bill, sponsored by Democratic Representative Joyce McCreight and supported by Maine Governor Janet Mills, has over […]

• Abortion Facility Closures Behind Delaware’s Abortion Decline | January 24, 2019

  Editor’s Note: Delaware’s clinic closures appear to be internally driven and due, in large part, to gross legal and medical violations surrounding multiple abortion practitioners in the state. The 2019 edition of Americans United for Life’s survey of state laws on abortion states: “Delaware maintains only minimal protections for a woman considering an abortion. ‘Loopholes’ […]

• How the Legal Status of Abortion Impacts Abortion Rates | May 23, 2018

  One argument frequently made by supporters of legal abortion is that the incidence of abortion is not affected by its legal status. As such, proponents of legal abortion maintain that legalizing abortion will not result in more abortions, but will instead improve the safety of abortions – ensuring they are done by trained medical professionals […]

• National Academies Report Downplays the Health Risks of Abortion | March 29, 2018

    Earlier this month, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) released a report on the safety of abortion in the United States. It examines various methods used for abortion and concludes that abortion is safe and poses minimal health risks. The report also puts a negative spin on pro-life laws, arguing that many of […]

• Abortion Rate Keeps Declining, Although Data are Incomplete | November 28, 2017

  Last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released U.S. abortion data for the year 2014, indicating that the U.S. abortion-rate decline, which began in the early 1980s, continues at a steady pace. According to the CDC, both the number of abortions and the abortion rate declined by about 2 percent between 2013 and 2014. The decline was fairly […]

• What’s Really Causing the Abortion Rate to Decline? | November 17, 2017

  Last month two researchers affiliated with the Guttmacher Institute published a report in the American Journal of Public Health.  The study analyzes abortion trends between 2008 and 2014. It finds that the U.S. abortion rate declined by 25 percent during that 6-year timespan. There were declines in the incidence of abortion among a wide range of […]

• Trump Administration Policies Won’t Increase the Abortion Rate | November 16, 2017

  Last month, two analysts from the think tank Third Way published an opinion piece in U.S. News and World Report claiming that new Trump-administration policies would cause a surge in the abortion rate. They also credited Obama-administration policies with reducing the incidence of abortion. The piece went on to assert that the Trump administration’s decisions […]

• Big Abortion Needs Big Government: The Case for Defunding Planned Parenthood | September 14, 2017

  If we want to reduce the abortion rate, we must stop funding Planned Parenthood with tax dollars, writes Dr. Michael New: Last week, ten pro-life leaders signed an open letter to Congress urging them to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Time is of the essence. Through the reconciliation process, simple majorities in both the U.S. […]

• Abortion Advocates Push Risky ‘Telemed’ Abortions |

  Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities endanger women with risky, unsupervised chemical abortions, writes Dr. Michael New at National Review: The number of abortion facilities in the United States has been declining, and many midwestern and southern states have few abortion clinics left. In response, supporters of legal abortion have advanced some medically risky proposals to […]

• Mainstream Media Mislead on Public Health in Texas | September 1, 2017

  Texas has clearly shown that positive public health outcomes are possible without taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood — but one would scarcely know from reading the media coverage, writes Dr. Michael New at CNSNews: After Texas defunded Planned Parenthood in 2011, The Heidi Group, led by long time pro-life activist Carol Everett, planned to establish a […]

• Planned Parenthood Poll Misleads on Taxpayer Funding for Abortion |

  Contrary to the purported findings of a misleading Planned Parenthood-commissioned poll, a majority of Americans oppose taxpayer-funded abortion, writes Dr. Michael New at the New Boston Post: This summer, a coalition of center-right groups launched a signature drive to try to make it possible to stop taxpayer funding of abortion in Massachusetts. In response, the Planned […]

• Hyde @ 40: Analyzing the Impact of the Hyde Amendment | September 27, 2016

  Congress enacted the first Hyde Amendment on September 30, 1976. Its passage was one of the pro-life movement’s first major legislative victories. As such, now is an apt time to look back on the amendment’s history and analyze its impact during the past 40 years.

• Analyzing The Recent Fertility Decline in the U.S. | June 28, 2016

  Last week The Washington Examiner reported on a new study released by the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. It analyzed the declining birthrate in the United States since 2007. Even though there are more women of childbearing age, the number of births has fallen from over 4.3 million in 2007 to 3.978 million in 2015 – an 8 percent decline. If the fertility rate had remained at its 2007 level, the author estimates that there would have been 3.4 million more births during the last 8 years.

• An Outstanding History of the Pre-Roe Pro-life Movement | May 2, 2016

  The history of the pro-life movement has received precious little attention from either journalists or academics. In 2014, Dr. and Mrs. John C. Willke published Abortion and the Pro-Life Movement: An Inside View which is the first truly comprehensive history of the modern pro-life movement. Their book first explores the history of pro-life activism before Roe v. Wade and then devotes a chapter to every year after 1973. This year, Daniel K. Williams, associate professor of history at the University of West Georgia, published Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement Before Roe v. Wade, a helpful augmentation to the Willke’s book.

• On Top of Everything Else, Contraception Mandates Don’t Work | March 23, 2016

  It’s hard to believe the Obama Administration is still fighting the nuns over abortion and contraception.

  The Little Sisters of the Poor object on religious grounds to the government hijacking their health insurance plan to provide contraceptives including some that can cause abortions.

  They’ve filed a lawsuit and today the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case.

• PRESS RELEASE: Lozier Scholar Submits Amicus Brief in Little Sisters Case | January 12, 2016

  Michael New, Ph.D., an Associate Scholar with the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the education arm of Susan B. Anthony List, submitted an amicus curiae brief yesterday to the U.S. Supreme Court in Zubik v. Burwell and consolidated cases.

  These cases represent a challenge against the Obamacare contraception mandate and its impact on the religious freedom of the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious nonprofits. The religious nonprofit organizations are arguing that the so-called “accommodation” crafted by the Obama Administration violates religious freedom protections secured by the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

• Pro-life Concerns about the Pending Expansion of Medicaid in Alaska | July 22, 2015

  Last Thursday Alaska Governor Bill Walker announced that he would use his executive authority to expand Alaska’s state Medicaid program under the federal Affordable Care Act. Walker’s proposal would extend Medicaid eligibility to all Alaskans earning less than 133 percent of the poverty line. Walker reported that he sent a letter to the Alaska legislature’s Budget and Audit Committee, giving legislators the required 45-day notice of his plan. The committee can make recommendations, but Walker said he has legal authority to move forward without the legislature’s approval.

  This action by Governor Walker will likely prompt both a political and a legal battle. Earlier this summer, the Republican-controlled state legislature rejected Walker’s plan to expand Medicaid. They even included language in the state’s budget prohibiting any such move. However, opinions from both the Alaska Department of Law and from the legislature’s legal counsel declared that the effort to block Walker likely doesn’t adhere to the state’s constitution.

• A Pro-Life Setback in Iowa | June 25, 2015

  Pro-lifers received some disappointing news last Friday when the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously struck down Iowa’s telemed abortion ban. In 2013, the Iowa Board of Medicine issued administrative regulations that required physicians to perform in-person examinations (rather than webcam consults) on women before prescribing abortion-inducing drugs. These regulations would have effectively banned the webcam abortion practice in Iowa, in which a woman could receive the abortion-inducing drugs through a remote-controlled drawer after speaking to a doctor via webcam. However, these administrative rules set off a flurry of legal challenges. In August 2014, a Polk County District Court judge ruled to uphold the ban. However, in September the Iowa Supreme Court issued a stay on the decision, allowing telemed abortions to continue.

• Medicaid Expansion’s Dramatic Effect on Tax-Funded Abortions in Key States | June 23, 2015

  This summer many people are anticipating the Supreme Court’s ruling in King v. Burwell. This case deals with whether health care exchange plans that are created by the federal government are eligible for federal tax subsidies. Right now the federal government is effectively running exchanges in about 34 states, a third of which allow the participation of insurance plans with elective abortion coverage. The ruling in this case has important implications for pro-life public policy. One major objection that pro-lifers had to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was that it included taxpayer subsidies for exchange-based insurance plans that cover abortion.

• An Analysis of How Medicaid Expansion in Alaska Will Affect Abortion Rates | May 13, 2015

  This May, the Alaska state legislature will consider legislation that would expand Alaska’s Medicaid program. In this timely analysis, CLI Associate Scholar Michael J. New, Ph.D. elaborates four ways in which a Medicaid expansion in Alaska would likely increase the state’s abortion incidence.

• Parental Involvement Laws Decrease Teen Suicide Rate | May 11, 2012

  Dr. Michael New, adjunct scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, writes on National Review Online of a new study by Sabia and Reese which shows that parental involvement laws for abortion reduce the suicide rates among teenage girls.  The teen suicide rate for teenage girls stands at roughly 5 per 100,000, according to the Center for Disease Control’s […]