Life, Liberty, and Law

Where can we go for truthful reporting in a time when so much of our news media has returned to the age of sensationalism, dubious tabloid-style journalism, and blinkered partisanship? If we're searching for truthful and reliable news on the pro-life cause, we need look no further than EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.

Today we speak with Prudence Robertson, host of EWTN Pro-Life Weekly, the leading national media coverage source dedicated exclusively to pro-life news. As Robertson stated in an interview with NCR, her pro-life convictions have been "strengthened by seeing the beauty of adoption, attending a faithful Catholic college, and witnessing the fruits of how reasoned, charitable dialogue can persuade people to become pro-life.”

We speak today with Samuel D. Green, President & General Counsel of Reason for Life. Reason for Life encourages, equips, and educates Christian leaders who are hesitant to address abortion, helping them see that sharing the truth about this subject is both essential and loving.

Before founding Reason for Life, Samuel spent five years at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), where he engaged in litigation to defend the sanctity of life, freedom of speech, and religious liberty. Samuel has also worked as a litigation associate at a large law firm (Jenner & Block), as a member of a presidential campaign’s legal team, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. 

Samuel finished first in his class at Pepperdine University School of Law, where he earned a Juris Doctor degree in 2011. He also studied political science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he graduated, summa cum laude, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2008.

Samuel has provided legislative testimony, preached sermons about the sanctity of life, and given presentations across the country to various groups or their chapters (including Students for Life of America, 40 Days for Life, Summit Ministries, Teen Pact Leadership Schools, the Federalist Society, and the St. Thomas More Society). Samuel has also participated in media interviews and published articles with various outlets, including Newsweek, The Seattle Times, The Hill, Washington Examiner, The Federalist, and The Daily Signal. Additionally, Samuel authored a legal brief in the historic Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade.

We speak today with Dr. John Bruchalski, a physician who has committed himself to the practice of holistic and life-affirming medicine.. Nearly 30 years ago, Dr. Bruchalski and his wife founded the Tepeyac Family Center, a pro-life obstetrics and gynecology medical practice. Tepeyac’s mission? To provide affordable care to all women, especially those in most need and those experiencing unexpected pregnancies. Dr. Bruchalski also started the Divine Mercy Care network, an umbrella organization, to support Tepeyac.

Prior to starting Tepeyac, Dr. Bruchalski was a physician who performed abortions and specialized in advanced fertility treatments. After several alarming and heart-gripping experiences, he began rethinking his career and found a new, life-affirming vocation in medicine. Dr. Bruchalski is a doctor, husband, speaker, teacher, and we speak with him about what it means to be a pro-life physician and the culture-shaping vision and mission of Tepeyac and missions like it.

We speak today about the relationship between the human right to life and the right to religious freedom. 

Our freedoms of thought, conscience, and religion are natural and interdependent rights, and when rightly understood, they serve to elevate our conception of the meaning and purpose of human life—the goods we recognize that are a part of the created order, and what this created order suggests about our origins and our destiny.

The human right to life is the first and more fundamental of all human rights, but the human right to religious freedom matters, too, because to be human is to pursue the truth.

Today we speak with Amb. Sam Brownback, who served most recently as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom and continues to work with coalitions around the globe to promote and protect the right to religious liberty.  He is currently serving as a fellow at the Center for Religous Studies at The Catholic University of America.

Before his appointment as U.S. Ambassador, Brownback previously served as a U.S. Senator and the 26th Governor of Kansas. Amb. Brownback is a prolific attorney, politician and diplomat and we speak with him about the importance of religous liberty, the human right to life, and what faith means to him personally.

We speak today with Melissa Ohden, a survivor of a failed salient infusion abortion and the founder and director of the Abortion Survivors Network, which seeks to educate the public about failed abortions and provide emotional, mental, and spiritual support to the abortion survivors. Melissa is the author of “You Carried Me: A Daughter’s Memoir” and a frequent contributor in various pro-life and conservative media outlets such as Focus on the Family, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Fox News.

We listen in today to a lecture by Dr. Charles Camosy delivered to the Americans United for Life 2022 Summer Fellows cohort. Dr. Camosy speaks on how COVID-19 has impacted our sense of human dignity and what human persons are owed both in medicine and the culture broadly.

Dr. Camosy is a Professor of Medical Humanities at the Creighton University School of Medicine and is the Msgr. Michael J. Curran Fellow of Moral Theology at Saint Joseph’s Seminary and College. He is author most recently of Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality (New City Press, 2021) and the forthcoming Bioethics for Nurses: A Christian Moral Vision.

The reversal of Roe v. Wade is changing the landscape for the human right to life across America. We know of so many states where the human right to life is being affirming, enshrined, and upheld. Unfortunately, however, many states and cities will continue to perpetuate abortion. Planned Parenthood and abortion businesses are multi-billion dollar Goliaths whose power remains intact, even though abortion is no longer recognized, as it unfortunately was for too long, as a right.

Today we are excited to speak with Mayra Rodriguez, former director of three Planned Parenthood facilities. Mayra left the abortion industry, and in 2019 Mayra prevailed in a $3 million lawsuit for wrongful termination against Planned Parenthood. Mayra sees her life has having been transformed by the mercy of God, and now sees it as her life mission to expose Planned Parenthood, abortion businesses, and to make abortion unthinkable.

Mayra is a speaker, wife, mother, and courageous pro-life leader. Mayra joins Tom Shakely and Elli Jochims on Life, Liberty, and Law.

Tom Shakely introduces an important recent joint-webinar hosted by Americans United for Life and the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding, held in the wake of the Dobbs decision and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Glenn Foster, President & CEO of Americans United for Life, Hadley Arkes, Founder of the James Wilson Institute, and Josh Craddock, Affiliated Scholar at the James Wilson Institute, come together to discuss the Dobbs decision and how it changes the pro-life movement.

Hadley Arkes is Professor emeritus at Amherst College, Founder of JWI, main advocate, and architect of the Born-Alive Infants’ Protection Act, and leading natural rights scholar. Catherine Glenn Foster, J.D is President & CEO of Americans United for Life, leading scholar on abortion, and litigator of precedent-setting § 1983 and other constitutional questions and on abortion and maternal health. Josh Craddock, J.D is a affiliated scholar with JWI, public speaker, and writer. Josh’s writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Newsweek, National Review, First Things, Public Discourse, The Stream, and Providence Magazine. The webinar, held July 7th, 2022, was moderated by Garrett Snedeker, Deputy Director of the James Wilson Institute.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade continues to send shockwaves through not only the United States of America, but also our allies internationally. For the first time, many are discovering that the overturning of Roe and the ending of our extreme abortion jurisprudence actually doesn’t change that much on the ground in states that will continue to be pro-abortion, and that in states that are embracing pro-life law and policy, most American pro-life law mirrors European-style protections—for instance, Mississippi’s law which the U.S. Supreme Court just upheld protects life at 15 weeks of a preborn child’s life. This means that Mississippi’s abortion laws are, actually, more liberal than the abortion laws on the books in nations like Italy, France, or most other European allies.

If Roe’s reversal means that even pro-life states will generally mimic European-style laws, where killing is still permissible throughout the first months of a child’s life, does this represent a true pro-life victory? No. There’s more to be done—Americans United for Life will continue to call upon the Executive, Legisltive, and Judicial branches to clarify that abortion is fundamentally incompatible with constitutional justice. We will continue to call upon the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify that natural human rights precede the letter of any constitution, and that our first and most fundamental of all human rights—the human right to life—means that unborn children are entitled to the equal protection of the laws.

Today we feature an important conversation hosted by our friends at Live Action on June 24th, 2022, the day of the release of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision and its reversal of Roe v. Wade. Catherine Glenn Foster, President & CEO of Americans United for Life speaks on what true constitutional justice looks like, and how the pro-life movement can cast a vision of a truly brighter future for all. Catherine is joined by Josh Craddock, Affiliated Scholar at the James Wilson Institute and Noah Brandt, Director of Government Affairs at Live Action.

Clarke Forsythe, Senior Counsel at Americans United for Life, joins Carolyn McDonnell, Staff Counsel, and Tom Shakely on "Life, Liberty, and Law" to discuss the overturning of Roe v. Wade, what the U.S. Supreme Court Justices have to say in the final opinion, and what's next.

“We are grateful to millions of Americans across our nation who sacrificed to see this day,” said Clarke Forsythe, Senior Counsel at Americans United for Life. “We know there is a lot of work ahead to save lives and help mothers balance their family, work, and future. We will continue our work for an America that upholds the dignity of the human person and protects every member of the human family in culture, law, and policy.”

Catherine Glenn Foster, President & CEO of Americans United for Life joins Steven H. Aden, Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel and Tom Shakely on AUL's "Life, Liberty, and Law" to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade and the future of pro-life advocacy.

In light of the unprecedented leak of the U.S. Supreme Court's draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, issues of human dignity and the human right to life are front and center in our culture. We speak today with someone who has worked at the intersection of human dignity issues for many years and across a range of institutions.

Arina O. Grossu, M.A., M.S., is Founder and Principal at Areté Global Consulting and a Fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. She focuses on the protection of human dignity, human rights, and the sanctity of human life from fertilization to natural death. Her areas of expertise include abortion, women’s health, bioethics, conscience, pornography, sex trafficking, assisted suicide, and euthanasia.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020 and Americans entered into what authorities assured us would be "two weeks to slow the spread," many predicted a baby boom would be the natural result of this time of closeness in quarantine. Yet there’s been no baby boom. And in fact, it looks like family formation and birth rates may, in fact, be continuing to decline as a result of the pandemic and the economic fallout of more than two years of ad hoc state and fiscal policy decisions.

As human persons, we’re make for relationship. We’re made for each other. We’re made for family and for community. We’re made for love. These insights are at the heart of Americans United for Life and our mission to advance the human right to life in culture, law, and policy.

So what do these challenging trends in birth rates, family formation, and economic portend for American life—and a possible poe-Roe cultural and political environment? 

We’re thrilled to speak today with Dr. Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, Associate Professor at The Catholic University of America. Dr. Pakaluk joined the faculty at the Busch School in the summer of 2016, and is the founder of the Social Research academic area, where she is an Associate Professor of Social Research and Economic Thought. Formerly, she was Assistant Professor and Chair of the Economics Department at Ave Maria University. Her primary areas of research include economics of education and religion, family studies and demography, Catholic social thought and political economy.

A leaked draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court, published in full by POLITICO and confirmed by Chief Justice John Roberts as authentic, suggests that the U.S. Supreme Court is on the verge of reversing Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. What does this mean for the pro-life movement? What does this mean for America? What does it mean at this moment in time?

Catherine Glenn Foster, President & CEO of Americans United for Life joins Steven H. Aden, Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel and Katie Glenn, Government Affairs Counsel, to break down the leak, what it may mean for the pro-life cause, and where we go next.

America has been grappling with suicide for decades. The anti-life logic of Roe v. Wade in 1973 made it inevitable that suicide, and the effort to legalize suicide, would join abortion as a major national issue. Although the Supreme Court, thankfully, ruled 9-0 in the 1997 case Washington v. Glucksberg that the Constitution contains no right to assisted suicide—the Court in essence punted the issue to the states, allowing assisted suicide to be imposed on the state level. So although the Court saved us in 1997 from a Roe v. Wade style national imposition of assisted suicide, the Court did not find that the Constitution is incompatible with the injustice of suicide and suicide assistance. What has taken place over quarter century since that 1997 case is a slow but steady increase in states permitting suicide assistance—most commonly through what is termed “physician assisted suicide”.

Dr. Jeffrey J. Barrows joins us today to speak about physician assisted suicide, why suicide prevention (rather than assistance) is at the heart of good medicine, and how to respond hopefully and positively to the challenges of life. Dr. Barrows serves as Senior Vice President of Bioethics and Public Policy for Christian Medical & Dental Associations. Dr. Barrows is an obstetrician/gynecologist, author, educator, medical ethicist and speaker.

Today we share an important talk by Dr. Donna Harrison, a physician, board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology, who serves as CEO of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Dr. Harrison recently joined Clarke Forsythe, Senior Counsel at Americans United for Life, for one of AUL's "Quarterly Calls" on timely and relevant issues facing America and the pro-life movement. Dr. Harrison speaks on chemical abortion pills, the risks of abortion pills to women, and the post-Roe pro-abortion strategy.

At Americans United for Life, we’re committed to advancing the human right to life in culture, law, and policy. We do this at the federal level, by working with and influencing all three branches of our federal government, and we do this work in the states, by working with advocates and lawmakers to pass robust laws that protect children, their mothers and fathers, and whole communities.

You can’t foster the kind of culture needed for a thriving America without family, without friends, without working together with a shared vision of a better future. We need allies in the work, or else it doesn’t get done.

The same is true in politics, especially at our federal level. Americans can elect powerful pro-life politicians, but if they’ve got no one to work with when they get to Washington, DC, if they’ve got no allies, no reliable staffers, no support—what can we really expect them to get done?

Saurabh Sharma, President of American Moment, is working to improve Washington and build community for the leaders who need it. We speak with Saurabh today on Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement, the stakes for pro-life law and policymaking, the work of American Moment and its mission and priorities, and potential post-Roe politics.

We’re taking another trip back in time today, journeying into the Americans United for Life archives. We journey today to Chicago. We’re heading into the AUL 1986 “Forum on Commitment for Life” to hear from two of America’s pro-life advocates. Our first speaker is Maura Quinlan, Chief Staff Counsel of Americans United for Life, and our second speaker is Dr. Bernard Nathanson, M.D.

We’re so thankful for the generations of advocates who have made the work of Americans United for Life possible. We celebrate their continuing impact through our mission as we celebrate our 50th anniversary. And we invite you to stand alongside us at this time by becoming a new or monthly supporter of AUL by visiting AUL.org.

"There is a wide-spread myth that Roe v. Wade is settled and entitled to respect as judicial precedent. The purveyors of this myth must ignore the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions going back to the earliest days of the Court—which point to judicial criticism and legal-scholarly criticism as keeping prior decisions unsettled. 

"Most importantly, they purveyors of the myth that Roe is settled and entitled to respect as judicial precedent must ignore four decades of detailed, comprehensive, and specific judicial and scholarly criticism of Roe itself. It is precisely because Roe has never been settled that it is entitled to no respect as precedent. In fact, because Roe is radically unsettled, long-standing principles of precedent dictate that it must be reconsidered."

These words are from Clarke Forsythe, Senior Counsel at Americans United for Life and author of AUL's just-released, “A Survey of Judicial and Scholarly Criticism of Roe v. Wade Since 1973: Legal Criticism and Unsettled Precedent”. We speak with Clarke today about his new and important survey of judicial and scholarly criticism of Roe and what lessons that advocates and lawmakers can take away from the past half century of popular, constitutional criticism of Roe and abortion culture.

Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses have been on the decline in America for years now. It's common knowledge amongst Americans within the pro-life community that life-affirming pregnancy resource centers today outnumber abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood by more than three to one. If you were to scatter all those pro-life pregnancy resource centers evenly across the country, every county in America would have at least one pro-life pregnancy resource center.

What makes America's experience since Roe all the more remarkable is that there is no pro-life equivalent of Planned Parenthood—there's no mega-NGO or national nonprofit organization organizing the alternatives-to-abortion movement. It's everyday women and men, the hometown heroes who we sometimes imagine only still exist in our cultural imagination, who are building the alternatives that charity, justice, and simple decency calls for.

Aubrey Schlackman, Founder & Executive Director of Blue Haven Ranch, is one of these American heroes. We speak with Aubrey today to learn what drew her, and her husband Bryan, to the issue of abortion alternatives, what sets Blue Haven Ranch apart, and how supportive communities can come together to promote resilient alternatives for the future.

Wesley J. Smith, Chair and Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism, returns to "Life, Liberty, and Law" to speak with Tom Shakely about his new "Humanize" podcast and some of the powerful guests he has interviewed so far. Tom and Wesley also speak about the Chinese Communist Party on human dignity, human rights, and the upcoming Winter Olympics taking place in February. Finally, Tom and Wesley look ahead to the importance of medical conscience and other issues likely to dominate the upcoming state legislative sessions.

It’s been a full and fruitful year! Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health presented the most comprehensive oral argument the U.S. Supreme Court has heard on abortion—covering a spectrum of abortion issues, including stare decisis, the undue burden standard’s viability line, women’s social reliance upon abortion, the distorted legal history of abortion, federalism, and the impact of safe haven laws. This case is primed to overrule Roe v. Wade and nearly fifty years of a federal constitutional travesty that manufactured a woman’s right to abort her unborn child. Instead of speaking in vague terms, today we will break down each of the Supreme Court Justice’s arguments and questions presented on December 1st. 

We are joined today by Carolyn McDonnell, Americans United for Life Staff Counsel. Carolyn focuses on amicus briefs, federal legislative affairs, and international advocacy for the human right to life. Carolyn recently joined our team and we are excited to kick off the New Year reflecting on lessons from 2021 and casting a vision for the future. 

Christmas is coming, and it is a time where we remember the importance of family and friends and gather around the table or in the living room to enjoy a Christmas classic. Unfortunately, it’s getting harder and harder to sift through the junk on TV and find something that highlights the beauty and fun of art and life. Peter Atkinson is an off-broadway star who has made it his mission to produce wholesome, engaging audio entertainment for the whole family. His entertainment company the Merry Beggars is merging with Relevant Radio in order to provide world-class entertainment to families across the United States. We are interviewing him today because his distinctive work—uplifting mothers, fathers, and family life, affirming the good where it is, nourishing goodness where it isn’t, and enlivening the culture—all of this intersects with the vision of the cause for life in America. Peter has found a way to combine his gifts and talents with advocacy for the dignity of the human person. We think Peter is the perfect person to help us celebrate this season of light and love. Create your free account at themerrybeggars.com and visit aul.org to support our daily work of advancing the human right to life.

What do we do when we feel like the world is burning down? Afghanistan, lack of trust in American leadership, uncertainty when it comes to pro-life momentum? In uncertain times, we speak with our friends—that means Alexandra DeSanctis, Staff Writer at National Review, returns to "Life, Liberty, and Law" to speak with Tom Shakely and Noah Brandt on the news of the day and how the pro-life movement can think about the reasons for hope and fear as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to consider Dobbs and Mississippi's abortion law.

Planned Parenthood has been gaining influence over lives and minds for a century. It monopolizes women’s reproductive health and engineers our culture to accept a flawed vision of the human person. The battle to reclaim the minds and hearts of Americans for life is a team effort, and today we are joined by an expert in building the pro-life team. Elizabeth Graham is the Vice President of Operations and Life Initiatives for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Through her work, Elizabeth is not afraid to call out lies in Planned Parenthood’s message to women to match Planned Parenthood’s efforts step for step and ultimately expose their goal of profiting at the expense of the women they claim to serve.

The inestimable value of every human person lies in who they are. Reclaiming a properly oriented understanding of human rights and flourishing means embracing the economics of dignity. Anna Claire Noblitt, a student at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, joins Tom Shakely and Noah Brandt on Life, Liberty, and Law this week. Anna Claire has been interning with Americans United for Life this summer and shares her optimism on the human right to life, on her time in the nation’s capital, and the need to embrace the economics of dignity.

Courage always begins in the heart, and although we don’t think of it this way nearly often enough, the virtue of courage (or bravery, fortitude, whatever you want to call it) is the foundation for every good and true act of politics and action of politicians. We see the importance of courage powerfully in Mississippi’s recent brief in defense of their state’s common sense 15-week pro-life protection law.

The Court will consider Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization this fall and will likely reveal its ruling in June 2022. Americans United for Life is filing two briefs in this critical Supreme Court case, meant to guide the thinking of the justices on the path to not only upholding Mississippi’s common sense pro-life law, but also reversing Roe v. Wade and ending the violence of abortion across the states.

We must overcome cynicism in our politics if we want to build a better America, and that starts by recovering the virtue of courage in our imaginations as much as in our lives. We speak with Katie Glenn, GA Counsel at Americans United for Life, about Mississippi’s powerful arguments, what we’re arguing at Americans United for Life, and why there will be a fundamental reckoning if the Court does not protect life in this case.

As Americans United for Life carries out our mission of advancing the human right to life in culture, law, and policy, we seek partnership and guidance from experts in various fields, especially the medical discipline of obstetrics and gynecology. A multi-faceted team enables us to care holistically for the women and children at risk of being harmed by abortion.

Dr. Christina Francis joins Tom Shakely, Noah Brandt, and Anna Claire Noblitt of Americans United for Life to discuss these important issues. Dr. Francis is a practicing OB/GYN who offers her in-depth medical expertise, knowledge of bioethics, and life-affirming reasoning with those wrestling with the reality of abortion. She is chair of the board of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), a board member of Indiana Right to Life, and an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Dr. Francis currently resides in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where she works with women and children who are often victims of the abortion industry.

While we usually focus on what is going on right here in the United States, today we have the opportunity to discuss what is happening on the human right to life across the Atlantic. In June, the European Parliament adopted the Matic Report, an extreme pro-abortion step that seeks to enshrine abortion as a fundamental right. To break down what pro-life advocates are doing to protect life in Europe, Tom Shakely and Noah Brandt speak with Jean-Paul Van De Walle. Jean-Paul serves as Legal Counsel, Europe for ADF International in Brussels where he advocates for religious freedom, life, and the family at the European Union. Jean-Paul speaks on the work of ADF International, the danger posed by the Matic Report, and the rising hope of pro-family policies in Europe.