National Institute of Family and Life Advocates

Last updated

The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) is an American 501(c)(3) charitable organization that is a member of the National Pro-Life Religious Council. [1] [2] Founded in 1993, it is based in Fredericksburg, Virginia and has the aim of "developing a network of life-affirming ministries in every community across the nation in order to achieve an abortion-free America." [3] The organization provides legal advice to over 1,350 crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) within its membership network, and the bulk of CPCs in the US are affiliated with NIFLA, Care Net and Heartbeat International. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] The organization's 2009 IRS Form 990 stated that the group spent $759,259 in annual advocacy expenses. [3] [9]

Contents

In 2004, Focus on the Family started the Option Ultrasound Program, which along with NIFLA, funds medical consultants to obtain ultrasound machines for crisis pregnancy centers and converts them to medical-style clinics. [4] [10] [11] [12] 1,000 of their members are medical clinics that utilize ultrasounds. [12] Hundreds of CPCs have become medical clinics through NIFLA's Life Choice Project, which increases the number of women going to the clinics, including those described by the organization as "abortion-minded." [10] [13]

Its founder and president is Thomas Glessner. NIFLA provides legal counsel to CPCs as well as medical training, having trained over 2,500 nurses in ultrasound use. NIFLA publishes two monthly newsletters aimed at CPCs, Legal Tips and "Clinic Tips" as well as a quarterly publication, The Life Sentinel.[ citation needed ] NIFLA also works with an insurance company that secures insurance for CPCs. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

Care Net is an evangelical Christian network of crisis pregnancy centers operating primarily in the United States. As an anti-abortion organization, its centers seek to persuade women not to have abortions. Headquartered in Northern Virginia, it is one of the nation's two largest networks of crisis pregnancy centers.

Heartbeat International is an international anti-abortion association that supports the largest network of crisis pregnancy centers (CPC) in the world, with over 2,000 affiliates in 50 countries. It does not offer, recommend, or refer for abortions. It describes itself as an "interdenominational Christian association". Heartbeat International teaches its affiliated members to make their advertising look as though they are full-service reproductive health clinics that provide referrals for birth control or abortion. Staff are also trained on how to discourage pregnant women from accessing abortion, and how to discourage young women from using emergency contraception, birth control pills, or IUDs. Heartbeat staff are also encouraged to create two websites, one that has an explicitly Christian message, and one that looks like Planned Parenthood. Many pregnancy centers have the ultimate goal of converting women through a born-again experience to "save the mother, save the baby".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crisis pregnancy center</span> Organization that persuades pregnant women against having abortions

A crisis pregnancy center (CPC), sometimes called a pregnancy resource center (PRC) or a pro-life pregnancy center, is a type of nonprofit organization established by anti-abortion groups primarily to persuade pregnant women against having an abortion. In the United States, CPCs that qualify as medical clinics may also provide pregnancy testing, sonograms, and other services, while many others operate without medical licensing under varying degrees of regulation. CPCs have frequently been found to disseminate false medical information about the supposed physical and mental health risks of abortion, and sometimes promulgate misinformation about the effectiveness of condoms and prevention of sexually transmitted infections. CPCs are sometimes referred to as fake abortion clinics by scholars, the media, and supporters of abortion rights, due to deceptive advertising practices that obscure the anti-abortion agenda of CPCs from potential patients seeking abortions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States anti-abortion movement</span> Movement in the United States opposing abortion

The United States anti-abortion movement contains elements opposing induced abortion on both moral and religious grounds and supports its legal prohibition or restriction. Advocates generally argue that human life begins at conception and that the human zygote, embryo or fetus is a person and therefore has a right to life. The anti-abortion movement includes a variety of organizations, with no single centralized decision-making body. There are diverse arguments and rationales for the anti-abortion stance. Some anti-abortion activists allow for some permissible abortions, including therapeutic abortions, in exceptional circumstances such as incest, rape, severe fetal defects, or when the woman's health is at risk.

This is a timeline of reproductive rights legislation, a chronological list of laws and legal decisions affecting human reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are a sub-set of human rights pertaining to issues of reproduction and reproductive health. These rights may include some or all of the following: the right to legal or safe abortion, the right to birth control, the right to access quality reproductive healthcare, and the right to education and access in order to make reproductive choices free from coercion, discrimination, and violence. Reproductive rights may also include the right to receive education about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, and freedom from coerced sterilization, abortion, and contraception, and protection from practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).

Birthright International is an international anti-abortion organization of crisis pregnancy centers. It offers a range of services, to an estimated 10 million women, designed to "help support a woman's desire not to have an abortion," including referrals to legal, medical and psychological services, as well as a range of community support assistance such as financial aid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion law in the United States by state</span> Termination of pregnancy in states of the United States

The legality of abortion in the United States and the various restrictions imposed on the procedure vary significantly depending on the laws of each state or other jurisdiction. Some states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy with few exceptions, others permit it up to a certain point in a woman's pregnancy, while others allow abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy. In states where abortion is legal, several classes of restrictions on the procedure may exist, such as parental consent or notification laws, requirements that patients be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion, mandatory waiting periods, and counseling requirements. Abortion laws tend to be the most strict in the Southern United States and the most lenient in the Northeastern and Western United States.

Abortion is legally accepted in Hungary starting in 1953, with the most recent change to abortion laws being Act LXXIX of 1992 on the protection of fetal life. Under the current laws, abortions may be performed up to 12 weeks but may be extended up to 24 weeks in certain circumstances.

Thomas Glessner is an American lawyer and the president of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), a public interest law firm founded in 1993.

Abortion is the termination of human pregnancy, often performed in the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. In 1973, the United States Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade recognized a constitutional right to obtain an abortion without excessive government restriction, and in 1992 the Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey invalidated restrictions that create an undue burden on people seeking abortions. Since then, there has continued to be an abortion debate in the United States, and some states have passed laws in the form of regulation of abortions but which have the purpose or effect of restricting its provision. The proponents of such laws argue they do not create an undue burden. Some state laws that impact the availability of abortions have been upheld by courts. In 2022, Roe and Casey were overturned by the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, meaning that states may now regulate abortion in ways that were not previously permitted.

Abortion in Texas is illegal in most cases. A trigger law has been in effect since August 25, 2022, which bans abortion in all cases except to save the life of the mother.

National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, 585 U.S. ___ (2018), was a case before the Supreme Court of the United States addressing the constitutionality of California's FACT Act, which mandated that crisis pregnancy centers provide certain disclosures about state services. The law required that licensed centers post visible notices that other options for pregnancy, including abortion, are available from state-sponsored clinics. It also mandated that unlicensed centers post notice of their unlicensed status. The centers, typically run by Christian non-profit groups, challenged the act on the basis that it violated their free speech. After prior reviews in lower courts, the case was brought to the Supreme Court, asking "Whether the disclosures required by the California Reproductive FACT Act violate the protections set forth in the free speech clause of the First Amendment, applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment."

Abortion in Alabama is illegal. Under section 26-23H-4 of the Code of Alabama in the U.S. state of Alabama, it is unlawful for an abortion to be performed unless it is deemed absolutely necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk to the woman. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.

Abortion in Missouri is illegal except in cases of medical emergency. In 2014, a poll by the Pew Research Center found that 52% of Missouri adults said that abortion should be legal vs. 46% that believe it should be illegal in all or most cases. According to a 2014 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) study, 51% of white women in the state believed that abortion is legal in all or most cases.

Abortion in Connecticut is legal up to the point of fetal viability, or after that if necessary to preserve the life or health of the pregnant woman. A poll by the Pew Research Center found that 67 percent of adults in the state believed that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Abortions took place early in the state's history. People at that time talked about abortions using euphemisms. The death of Sarah Grosvenor following unsuccessful abortion resulted in a prosecution in colonial Connecticut. Connecticut became the first state to criminalize abortion after codifying its common law in 1821. Later, such laws were justified as trying to protect the life of the women from bad actors providing unsafe abortion services. The state was one of ten states in 2007 to have a customary informed consent provision for abortions. In 1965, the US Supreme Court heard the case of Griswold v. Connecticut, striking down laws that banned the sale, use of and prescription of contraceptives, even for married couples. The Court's later decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester. In 1990, state law was amended to read, "the decision to terminate a pregnancy prior to the viability of the fetus shall be solely that of the pregnant woman in consultation with her physician", the first such law in state codifying the Court's holding in Roe, as it would be later modified by Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Abortion in Michigan is legal until fetal viability. A state constitutional amendment to explicitly guarantee abortion rights was placed on the ballot in 2022 as Michigan Proposal 22–3; it passed by 57 percent, adding the right to abortion and contraceptive use to the Michigan Constitution. The amendment largely prevents the regulation of abortion before fetal viability, unless said regulations are to protect the individual seeking abortion care, and it also makes it unconstitutional to make laws restricting abortions which would protect the life and health, physical and/or mental, of the pregnant individual seeking abortion.

Abortion in Wisconsin was made illegal after the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 24, 2022, except when the life of the mother is in danger.

Abortion in California is legal up to the point of fetal viability. An abortion ban was in place by 1900, and by 1950, it was a criminal offense for a woman to have an abortion. In 1962, the American Law Institute published their model penal code as it applied to abortions, with three circumstances where they believed a physician could justifiably perform an abortion, and California adopted a version of this code. In 2002, California passed a law guaranteeing women the right to have an abortion "prior to viability of the fetus, or when the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman." In 2022, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1, which amended the Constitution of California to explicitly protect the right to abortion and contraception by a margin of 33.76%.

Abortion in Maryland is legal up to the point of fetal viability or when necessary to preserve the life or health of the pregnant person. The first laws regulating abortion in the state were passed in 1867 and 1868, banning abortion except by a physician to "secure the safety of the mother." Abortion providers continued to operate, with a robust network of referrals from regular physicians to "skilled abortionists" such as Dr. George Lotrell Timanus, who practiced from the 1920s through the 1950s in Baltimore. Medical and legal enforcement became more strict from the 1940s through 60s, with numerous police raids on abortion providers. In 1968, Maryland passed a liberalized abortion law that clarified the wording of the previous law, allowing abortion in hospital settings in cases of rape, severe fetal deformity, or when life and health were endangered.

Abortion in Wyoming is legal as of January 2023 due to a district court injunction.

References

  1. ↑ "NPRC Board Members". Archived from the original on 22 March 2015.
  2. ↑ IRS Form 990 for 2009 submitted by NIFLA. Accessed 2011-06-06.
  3. 1 2 "Lobbying for the Faithful". Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on March 6, 2019.
  4. 1 2 "The rising power of crisis pregnancy centers". The American Independent Institute. Archived from the original on May 28, 2018.
  5. ↑ Cathy Cabrea (22 Mar 2015). "Why Abortion Clinics Are Run By These Christian Groups". Daily Offbeat.
  6. ↑ Sofia Resnick (23 Feb 2012). "Crisis pregnancy centers push anti-abortion agenda nationally". Colorado Independent.
  7. ↑ NIFLA website, About Us, History Accessed 2011-02-10.
  8. ↑ Matt Bowman (23 Jun 2014). "City's subpoenas in the pregnancy center lawsuit intimidate and harass anti-abortion groups". Baltimore Sun (Op-Ed).
  9. ↑ "Leading Pro-Life Groups Host Live Webcast Event". Focus on the Family. 3 May 2011. Archived from the original on September 7, 2015. Focus on the Family , Care Net , Heartbeat International and the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates ( NIFLA ) will co-host the live UNITEforLIFE webcast event to benefit pro-life pregnancy care organizations
  10. 1 2 Janelle S. Taylor (2008). The Public Life of the Fetal Sonogram: Technology, Consumption, and the Politics of Reproduction. Rutgers University Press. p. 164. ISBN   978-0-8135-4364-2.
  11. ↑ Sara Diamond (1 January 2000). Not by Politics Alone: The Enduring Influence of the Christian Right. Guilford Press. p. 154. ISBN   978-1-57230-494-9.
  12. 1 2 "About Us". NIFLA(Self published). January 2015. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
  13. ↑ NIFLA website, About Us, What We Do Accessed 2011-02-09.
  14. ↑ NIFLA website, Membership, Insurance Accessed 2011-02-10.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.