Obamacare in Court: Abortion Premium Mandate Violates Free Exercise
BDF Exposes Obamacare's "Tax on Pro-Life Conscience." Obamacare's individual mandate not only forces individuals into private purchases, it also mandates individuals to either pay a separate personal payment for surgical abortion coverage or include abortifacient drugs, or both, without exemption for individual's religious or moral objections.
Read the amicus brief filed by BDF on March 7, 2013 in the U.S. Fourth Circuit in a comprehensive Obamacare challenge revived by the U.S. Supreme Court itself, Liberty University v. Geithner. BDF represents 281 individual members of Legatus and the Catholic Medical Association.
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Speaking Engagements & Debates
BDF attorneys Nikolas T. Nikas and Dorinda C. Bordlee provide engaging Powerpoint Presentations and debates in Legislatures, Law Schools, Medical Schools, Universities, and Professional Organizations in the United States and around the world -- on bioethics issues including Human Cloning and Stem Cell Research, Abortion and its Impact on Women, and Healthcare Rights of Conscience.
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HHS Mandate: The Real War on Women
UPDATE: BDF is filing amicus briefs in HHS lawsuits across the country exposing how Obamacare's HHS "preventive health" Mandate ignores serious health risks to women, including stroke, heart attack, breast cancer, HIV and more.
The USA Today editorial board concluded that the Obama administration's so-called contraceptive mandate "not only crossed the line. It galloped over it." Learn more about this religious liberty violation, and read our official comment to HHS addressing (1) material cooperation with evil still required under the so-called accomodation, and (2) the science showing that the mandated drugs are capable of terminating human life.
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20 Week Abortion Restriction: Protecting Women's Health & Pain-Capable Unborn Children
Read about the federal district court victory upholding the constitutionality of the Arizona 20-week abortion restriction to protect the health of women and the lives of unborn children who are capable of feeling pain. BDF is legal consultant to Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, who argued the case against the ACLU and CRR representing 3 late-term abortion providers. Read the decision, the transcript of the oral argument, the statute, and learn about the November 5, 2012 oral argument.
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Court Challenge: Tax-Funded Human Embryo Research
Read the brief filed by Bioethics Defense Fund on behalf of stem cell scientist/embryologist Dr. Maureen Condic. And learn the background and scientific facts about a breakthrough in ethical stem cell research that President Obama ignored in issuing his executive order.[ more ]
Holistic Feminism: Abortion Harms Women & Children
A mountain of studies confirm that abortion harms women's physical and psychological health, in addition to destroying the life of her child. "Holistic Feminism" is a term that BDF uses to describe our policy strategies that integrate the interests of the woman, the unborn child, and the often ignored interests and duties of men who can easily shirk their legal and moral duties of child support and fatherly guidance.
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The Changing Face of Cloning & Stem Cells
Months after the cloner of Dolly the Sheep abandonned his U.K. license to clone human embryos based on the ethical "skin cell method" of creating embryonic-like stem cells, a California-based lab has claimed to have cloned human embryos.
Learn the facts, and contact us for the BDF legislation that prohibits state funding and/or the practice of human embryo cloning for both destructive research or for childbirth.
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Ultrasound Before Abortion Model Legislation
Science tells us when life begins. The real question is when love begins. For many abortion-minded women, love began when they had the opportunity to see their unborn child on an ultrasound screen.
Pulitzer Prize winner Kathleen Parker focused her Wash Post column on BDF ultrasound before abortion legislation – a common-sense approach that recognizes that “abortion truthfully presented would eliminate itself or vastly reduce its numbers.”
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Signs of Hope Legislation: Abortion Alternatives Sign and Mobile Website
The innovative "Signs of Hope" legislation drafted by Bioethics Defense Fund has been enacted for the first time, and is now in development at the Louisiana Department of Health. The law requires abortion clinics to post 16 x 20 signs that give women information about their rights and alternatives, and features a web address that converts to a mobile format when it is accessed by an iPhone or any mobile device.
Studies show that 64% of American women felt pressured into abortion, and that they often don't know their rights and alternatives. The "Signs of Hope" inform women that they can't be forced to abort, that the father must provide child support even if he's offered to pay for the abortion, that adoptive parents may pay costs of prenatal care and childbirth, and that there are many agencies able to help the women during and after the pregnancy.
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White Papers
BDF is gathering the best, in-depth research and analysis of pressing life and bioethics issues. Here you will find links to authoritative writing on topics such as when life begins, emergency contraception, and stem cell research. In addition, we provide links to the excellent reports of the 2002-2008 President's Council on Bioethics. These are ideal resources for reporters, for those writing research papers, or for anyone wishing to gain a deeper understanding of these important issues.[ more ]
BDF bill addresses "Octomom" abuses
The intense “Octomom” news coverage has highlighted the moral and social problems inherent in the powerful and unregulated IVF industry. Bioethics Defense Fund attorneys have drafted “The Ethical Treatment of Human Embryos Act” (Ga. S.B. 169 of 2009) that will be heard in a Georgia Senate committee this Thursday, March 5, 2009.
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Protecting Women's Ovarian Health from EGGsploitation
The cloning of human embryos for destructive research requires millions of human eggs. How do embryo cloners and fertility clinics that supply them get their eggs? By advertising on college campuses, offering thousands of dollars to cash-strapped college women to incentivize them to risk their lives and future fertility for unethical and unproven science.
BDF has assisted seven states in banning human cloning for any reason. But the IVF industry is increasingly acting as a supplier of human eggs to biotech for human cloning. Learn the facts, and protect the women you love from being exploited by Big Biotech as egg farms.
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BDF Passion for Life 2012 Benefit: Join Nikolas Nikas and Dorinda Bordlee at ten days after the Presidential race for a discussion of the post-election impact on BDF's cutting-edge legal work and enjoy a cocktail party and inspiring addresses from our 2012 Witnesses for Life in Science and Medicine: Dr. Maricela Moffitt and Dr. Maureen Condic.
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FROM THE MEDIA:
64% of Women Having Abortions Faced Pressure, How One Woman Overcame It
I have nowhere to turn and no support in keeping my unborn child who I already love dearly. This baby is my miracle. What do you say to a woman who has nothing? Love does not feed or clothe my children. Love and grace will not keep a warm place for my children to sleep. [...]
Planned Parenthood Conference Has Teens Teaching Porn to Adults
When I walked into this year’s Oregon Adolescent Sexuality Conference in Seaside, Oregon, one of the first things I encountered was a table manned by three young teen boys. On the table was a collage that included many depictions of totally bare female genitalia—obviously pornographic and, one would think, illegal. The collage included a drawing [...]
Kermit Gosnell Shows Legal Doesn’t Mean Safe When It Comes to Abortion
On May 13, West Philadelphia abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell was found guilty of 237 crimes. Among his convictions were three counts of first-degree murder of infants born alive during attempted late-term abortions, one count of infanticide, and the involuntary manslaughter of a patient who died from complications of anesthesia administered by an unlicensed nurse. The [...]
Mom Refuses Abortion, Gives Birth to Baby Developing Outside Her Womb
Doctors told 27-year-old Nicollete Soto that her life was at risk because her unborn baby was developing outside her womb in a rare condition known as a corneal pregnancy. Though physicians couldn’t remember any case of a successful pregnancy with such a condition, Soto would not consider an abortion and carried the pregnancy to 32 [...]
Several Maryland Abortion Clinics Lose Licenses, Woman Dies From Abortion
Several Maryland-based abortion clinics had their licenses suspended today after the chain of abortion centers put women’s health and lives at risk by utilizing unlicensed and untrained workers. The Baltimore Sun has more information: State health regulators have suspended the licenses of several abortion clinics owned by Associates in OB/GYN Care for the second time [...]
Court Rules Abortion More Important Than Women’s Lives
This week the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Arizona’s law prohibiting abortion at or after 20 weeks of pregnancy – a law that was based on uncontroverted medical evidence that abortion’s risks to maternal health increase dramatically at 20 weeks gestation. It is universally accepted that risks to maternal health from abortion increase as pregnancy [...]