AUL’s Life List: 2012 Key Facts

“Top 10” Talking Points for 2012 Life List

1. In 2011, AUL actively worked with allies in 37 states to introduce and support life-affirming legislation and helped to enact 28 life-affirming, abortion-related laws including.

Florida, Idaho, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Virginia enacted restrictions on insurance coverage of abortions within state Exchanges created pursuant to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Nebraska enacted AUL’s parental consent language.
With extensive help and involvement from AUL, New Hampshire legislators overrode Governor John Lynch’s veto of a parental notification law.
Kansas enacted abortion clinic regulations, using language from AUL’s Women’s Health Protection Act.
Oklahoma enacted AUL’s model language regulating the provision of RU-486, effectively prohibiting “telemed abortions.” AUL also consulted with Nebraska to prohibit “telemed abortions.”
AUL worked with allies in Florida, Indiana, and Texas to enact ultrasound requirements.
In the face of pressure from Compassion & Choices and their allies for the state to recognize a right to assisted suicide, Idaho instead enacted a law prohibiting physician-assisted suicide based on AUL’s model language.

Additionally, during the 2011 state legislative sessions:

At least 86 bills introduced in 32 states which were based in whole or in part on AUL’s model language and/or on which AUL consulted and advised.
AUL’s experts testified 21 times, supporting 20 pro-life bills and opposing legislation in Hawaii that would have compromised healthcare freedom of conscience.
AUL distributed more than 1,600 copies of our model legislation (with accompanying policy guides) to individuals in 47 states, the District of Columbia, and overseas nations.

2. AUL’s annual Life List shows that the 50 states will be ready for the “day after Roe.” State by state and law by law, they are already leading the way to a more pro-life America.

3. When Roe v. Wade is eventually overturned, each of the 50 states will resume their rightful role as the arbiters of abortion law and policy. In fact, as the Life List documents, that vigorous, state-by-state debate has already begun as the majority of states continue to update and strengthen their abortion-related laws.

4. In 2011, the vast majority of states continued to pursue life-affirming laws and policies as 47 states considered more than 460 measures related to abortion. Significantly, more than 70 life-affirming, abortion-related measures were enacted in 2011.

5. For the second time in three years, Louisiana tops the Life List. Louisiana has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to life and an unwillingness to rest on prior accomplishments, instead enacting innovative, protective laws year after year such as last year’s “Signs of Hope” which protects women considering abortion from coercion.

6. For the third year in a row, Washington, California, and Hawaii rank as the List’s least life-affirming states. These states lack the most basic laws to protect women and the unborn from the harms inherent in abortion and have embraced a variety of destructive policies such as support for research on human embryos and assisted suicide.

7. The List’s “most improved” states are Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, and Utah. Each of these states enacted multiple life-affirming laws in 2011 – most notably, Indiana, Kansas, and North Carolina took steps to de-fund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.

8. Recognizing that more than 70 percent of American taxpayers – both pro-life and pro-choice – do not want their tax dollars subsidizing abortion, this year’s ranking criteria placed greater emphasis on state laws that eliminate or limit taxpayer support for abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.

9. A number of states are already seeking to dethrone Louisiana and claim the mantle as the Life List’s most pro-life state in 2013. As a result, this legislative year is shaping up to be as promising as 2011 and it won’t be just one particular state or region of the country that will see pro-life legislative advances in the coming year.

10. This is the seventh year in which AUL has issued its annual Life List.

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