In The News

Des Moines Register:

Dan McConchie, vice president of public affairs for Washington-based Americans United for Life, was the keynote speaker. He cautioned there is “no one silver bullet” that will suddenly prohibit legalized abortion. But he urged abortion foes to bring pressure upon legislators to force votes on initiatives aimed at chipping away at legal abortion, suggesting it offers the best path towards success.

McConchie described President Barack Obama as being “in the pocket of Planned Parenthood” and he said it’s clear the U.S. Senate is aligned with advocates of legal abortion. But he expressed optimism for the future, saying there is a growing number of anti-abortion politicians in state government offices nationwide.

Des Moines Register

Dan McConchie, vice president of public affairs for Washington-based Americans United for Life, was the keynote speaker. He cautioned there is “no one silver bullet” that will suddenly prohibit legalized abortion. But he urged abortion foes to bring pressure upon legislators to force votes on initiatives aimed at chipping away at legal abortion, suggesting it offers the best path towards success.

McConchie described President Barack Obama as being “in the pocket of Planned Parenthood” and he said it’s clear the U.S. Senate is aligned with advocates of legal abortion. But he expressed optimism for the future, saying there is a growing number of anti-abortion politicians in state government offices nationwide.

About 25 Iowa legislators, nearly all Republicans, attended the rally, along with Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey. Bishop Richard Pates of the Des Moines Catholic Diocese was also present.

AUL President & CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest is quoted by Bloomberg BusinessWeek:

This year, Republican lawmakers in Iowa, Alabama, Indiana, Missouri, and Mississippi have introduced similar bills restricting the use of telemedicine in prescribing abortion drugs. All but one of the measures are based on model legislation written by Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group in Washington that calls abortion drugs “the new profit-boosting frontier” for providers. Remote abortion services are about making money, says Charmaine Yoest, the group’s president. “It’s appalling that the self-described defenders of women’s health demonstrate over and over that they’re willing to put their economic interests ahead of actually protecting women.”

Reuters quotes Anna Franzonello:

Critics, who liken the drug to abortion, lamented the findings.

The rise in emergency contraception use “is the sad result of deceptive labeling,” Anna Franzonello, an attorney for Americans United for Life.

The pill is sold by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd as Plan B. It also is available as a generic. In 2010 the FDA approved another emergency contraceptive called ella, a prescription drug now owned by Actavis Inc.

World magazine quotes AUL’s Anna Franzonello:

Americans United for Life (AUL) Attorney Anna Franzonello said in a statement the increase in use shows many women don’t know what the drugs really do: “AUL’s concern that life-ending drugs are being deceptively labeled as ‘contraception’ has only increased since the period that the CDC’s national Center for Health Services (NCHS) study examined.”

Politico quotes Anna Franzonello of AUL:

So far, 18 states have passed laws to restrict or ban insurance coverage of abortion in health care exchanges, according to Guttmacher. Two states – Kentucky and North Dakota – had older laws in place banning abortion coverage in all insurance plans.

That list may grow. Michigan and New Jersey have introduced bills that would restrict abortion coverage in exchanges. Kentucky’s bill would make clear that the current restrictions apply within the new exchanges. Another abortion coverage measure is, for now, stalled in committee in the Arkansas Legislature.

Anna Franzonello, an attorney with the anti-abortion organization Americans United for Life, predicted more states will follow. The health care law “creates a new concern that states didn’t have before about insurance plans covering abortion,” she said. “The [Affordable Care Act] creates all these new mandates, so the opt-out is a response to what otherwise would be a change in the status quo.”

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Catholic News Agency

Amid changing abortion rhetoric and significant legislative advances, a group of legal experts in the nation’s capital said that they are confident in the future of the pro-life movement.

“In this epic struggle,” said Dr. Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, “my money’s on the baby.”

Hosting a Jan. 24 symposium in Washington, D.C., Yoest and other speakers discussed changes in rhetoric surrounding the abortion debate, as well as growing legislative efforts in the 40 years since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision established a “right” to abortion nationwide.

Much of the discussion focused on changes to tactics used by abortion advocates over the years.

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Dr. Charmaine Yoest writes at FoxNews.com:

Forty years after Roe v. Wade, a powerful shift is taking place within Big Abortion. What abortion advocates could not win through choice, they intend to impose through coercion.

Even Time magazine recently acknowledged on their cover that, for those so inclined to celebrate Roe’s anniversary, the rejoicing over abortion on demand should be tinged with concern.  On January 14th Time asked “What Choice?” and then answered their own question:  “40 years ago, abortion rights activists won an epic victory with Roe v. Wade,” the cover noted and then concluded: “They’ve been losing ever since.

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Christian Post names the 4 Most Powerful Pro-Life Female Voices and includes AUL President & CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest:

Charmaine Yoest

Americans United for Life’s Charmaine Yoest began her career working in the Reagan White House before transitioning to an advisory role in Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s 2008 GOP presidential campaign. She is also the co-author of Mother in the Middle, which takes a closer look at the nation’s childcare policy.

Yoest, who has a PhD in politics from the University of Virginia, has worked at several pro-family organizations including, Concerned Women for America and the Family Research Council. One of Yoest’s more significant accomplishments occurred this past year when she temporarily was able to have the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure end its contributions to Planned Parenthood.

Her group’s 2011 report titled, “The Case for Investigating Planned Parenthood,” led to a congressional probe by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In a 2012 interview with The Washington Post, she said one of her most memorable moments working in the pro-life arena occurred when she received the news that Komen had decided to stop contributing to PP.

“I have to say, it was some of the best news of my entire life,” Yoest said in the interview discussing the Komen decision. However, the victory was short-lived when the group was pressed to reinstate the funding by congressional Democrats and other pro-abortion activists.

Like the many others involved in hand-to-hand combat in the pro-life arena, Yoest is not discouraged even though President Obama – who supports abortion on demand – won re-election in November.

“We are really energized right now,” she said in her interview.

Yoest and her husband, Jack, have five children.

AUL’s William Saunders and Veronika Johannsen write at LifeNews:

Monday marked the inauguration of President Obama to a second term as the most pro-abortion president in our nation’s history. He is unyieldingly committed to upholding Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court decision ushering in the age of abortion.

That the inauguration was held on the annual day of remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is deeply ironic. While King led a nation–changing civil rights movement, the longest running civil rights movement in our nation’s history is the pro-life movement. Since Roe v. Wade was announced in January 1973, the March for Life has brought people from around the country to Washington, DC to protest the arrogance and injustice of the decision. It is estimated that more than 400,000 people will attend the March this Friday.

Forty years after Roe, we look back on what was hailed as a woman’s fundamental “right,” and we are saddened to see the negative impact it has had on our society, knowing that nearly 55,000,000 Americans are no longer with us after losing their lives to abortion. This championed “freedom of choice” has not only left millions upon millions dead, but it has also left countless women wounded from the abuses of the abortion industry. As a nation, we mourn the deaths of not only the unborn children, but also women like Tonya Reeves who died last July after complications from an abortion procedure at a Chicago Planned Parenthood.

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