Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas (MN)

12/17/2024

Montana Christmas coming together.

12/11/2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for yesterday’s webinar featuring Carolyn McDonnell, Litigation Counsel at Americans United for Life and Prolife Center alumna. Carolyn shared insightful perspectives on what prolifers might anticipate with the inauguration of President-elect Trump. If you missed it, you can view the recording at https://youtu.be/gwJl6LxDYUA?si=rfns-bLH7ZTFn6DV.

At the Prolife Center, we are deeply grateful for your prayers and support. This past year, your generosity has made important achievements possible:

Legal Advocacy: Your gifts enabled us to prepare and file three amicus briefs with the United States Supreme Court, as well as additional briefs in lower courts.

Student Engagement: With your support, we employed two law students as part-time researchers, giving them invaluable experience drafting briefs and law review articles while connecting them with national leaders in the prolife movement.

Thought Leadership: We amplified our voice by speaking at the 2024 National March for Life to prolife law students and addressing the inaugural Prolife Caucus at the National Lawyers Federalist Society Convention. This year we initiated intermittent webinars on topics important to the prolife community.

The Prolife Center operates exclusively through the prayers and financial support of our community. Please consider forwarding this email to others who share our mission. If you are not on our mailing list, contact Michele Huber at [email protected] to be added.

To make a tax-deductible gift, visit the University Giving Page and select an amount, and enter “Prolife Center” in the designation field.https://www.givecampus.com/campaigns/40933/donations/new?amt=100.00

Alternatively, contributions can be mailed to:

University of St. Thomas
Development Office
P.O. Box 64947
St. Paul, MN 55164-0947

Please specify that your gift supports the Prolife Center at the School of Law.

Together, we are shaping laws today and preparing the next generation of prolife lawyers for tomorrow. Thank you for making a difference.

09/17/2024

You can view today’s webinar on the 2024 Supreme Court decisions related to abortion.

This past summer the Supreme Court declined to resolve two key questions regarding abortion access after overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Ca...

09/08/2024

A compelling prolife movie is Ireana’s Vow. I recommend it.

06/27/2024

Today in Moyle v. United States, the Supreme Court sent the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice to force Idaho to allow abortions under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act back to the Idaho federal district court for a full trial. The court ruled 6-3 to dismiss the case as "improvidently granted," which means the facts of the case were not sufficiently clear to justify the Supreme Court providing a final decision on the questions presented.

Justice Barrett, writing for herself, Chief Justice Roberts, and Justice Kavanaugh, cited the brief of the Prolife Center in support of their decision to allow the case to proceed.

[P]etitioners have raised a difficult and consequential argument, which they did not discuss in their stay applications, about whether Congress, in reliance on the Spending Clause, can obligate recipients of federal funds to violate state criminal law. Brief for Petitioners in No. 23–726, pp. 48–51; Reply Brief in No. 23–727, pp. 3–4; see also Brief for Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas as Amicus Curiae. The District Court did not address this issue below—nor did the Ninth Circuit, which we bypassed. We should not jump ahead of the lower courts, particularly on an issue of such importance.

The Center looks forward to continuing to support Idaho's right to protect pregnant women and their unborn children.

The Prolife Center is supported exclusively by the prayers and donations of its supporters. Please feel free to forward this email to others you know that support our mission. If this email was forwarded to you and you would like to be on our email list, please contact my assistant, Michele Huber at [email protected] to be added.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible gift to the Center, please visit the university's online giving page. In the 'Choose your Designation' field, enter “Prolife” and the Prolife Center in the School of Law should appear from the drop-down menu.

Alternatively, contributions can also be mailed to the Development Office at University of St. Thomas, P.O. Box 64947, St. Paul, MN 55164-0947. Specify that your gift contributes to the work of the Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

06/14/2024

Good news from Europe on the physician-assisted su***de front. https://www.facebook.com/share/PMLjCz3uHxQ1ANuw/?mibextid=WC7FNe

The European Court of Human Rights has delivered a long-awaited ruling on end-of-life issues in the landmark case of Karsai v. Hungary . It confirms the...

06/13/2024

The United States Supreme Court unanimously rejected arguments by an alliance of prolife doctors and medical organizations challenging the FDA most recent approval of prescribing mifepristone (a drug used in medication abortions) without any requirement of an in-person visit. The Court rules that the doctors had failed to show that they were injured by the FDA approval of mail-order abortions. You can read the opinion at the link below.

06/05/2024

Great witness by 2 University of Texas professors.

Two professors are suing the Biden administration over new rules it issued that force them to be involved in abortions by giving students excused absences when they go out of state for abortions that will kill their babies. University of Texas-Austin professors Daniel Bonevac and John Hatfield said....

06/02/2024

My conversation with Drew begins at the 16:45 mark.

05/30/2024

Good for our Bishops!

By Dave Andrusko It is the nature of the beast, so we shouldn’t be surprised that there is nothing life-affirming and helpful to women and their unborn children alike that the Abortion Industry won’t attempt to corrupt and manipulate to serve their life-denying purposes. We’ve posted multiple ...

05/16/2024

The University of St. Thomas will be hosting this year's annual conference for the University Faculty for Life on June 7 and 8 on the St. Paul campus. We invite you to register (link at bpttpm of post) and join us for all or part of the conference. There will be several presentations that should be of interest to the Prolife Community. Here are a few of the highlights:

Friday, June 7

2:15 to 3:15 p.m.

"The Pro-Life Movement After Dobbs: Where Do We Go From Here?"

Paul Benjamin Linton, former general counsel to Americans United for Life, is author of Abortion Under State Constitutions (Carolina Academic Press), a comprehensive state-by-state analysis of the status of abortion as a state constitutional “right,” now in its third edition.

Teresa Collett, UST Law, Director of the Prolife Center, previous Smith Award Recipient

7:00-8:00 p.m. Smith Award Lecture

“Vulnerable Populations, Language and the Pro-Life Movement.”

Charles Camosy, Ph.D. Professor of medical humanities at the Creighton University School of Medicine; Holds the Monsignor Curran Fellowship in Moral Theology at St. Joseph Seminary in New York; author of Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality (2021); and, Beyond the Abortion Wars: A Way Forward for a New Generation, 2015.

Saturday, June 8

9:00-10:00 a.m.

“Gerrymandering the Meaning of Death: Why ‘Dead Enough’ is Not Good Enough.”

Christopher A. DeCock, M.D. Pediatric Neurologist & Epileptologist, Observer for the Uniform Law Commission’s Drafting Committee on the Revision of the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA); Pediatric Clerkship Director for the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Science; President of Fargo Guild of Catholic Medical Association; co-author with Daniel Sulmassy of articles in Neurology and Chest.

10:15 to 11:15 a.m.

“Dobbs, Fourteenth Amendment Personhood, and the States’ Police Power”

Clarke Forsythe, Senior Counsel, Americans United for Life and author of Politics for the Greatest Good: The Case for Prudence in the Public Square and Abuse of Discretion: The Inside Story of Roe v. Wade.

"Abortion in the Supreme Court, October 2023 Term: the Mifepristone and EMTALA cases"

Stephen Gilles, Professor Emeritus, Quinnipiac University School of Law. After clerking for U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Bork and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, he practiced as an appellate litigator, and subsequently taught at the Quinnipiac University School of Law, where he recently took emeritus status.

1:30 to 3:00 p.m. Specialty Panel

Neurological Criteria for Accurately Determining Death: Possible or Impossible?

Heidi Klessig, M.D. Board certified in anesthesiology and pain management, she retired in 2007 when her husband was diagnosed with a brainstem tumor. She is the author of The Brain Death Fallacy which reviews the work of doctors, philosophers, and scholars who do not accept the brain death concept.

Christopher DeCock, M.D., Pediatric Neurologist & Epileptologist, Observer for the Uniform Law Commission’s Drafting Committee on the Revision of the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA); Pediatric Clerkship Director for the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Science; President of Fargo Guild of Catholic Medical Association; co-author with Daniel Sulmassy of articles in Neurology and Chest.

R. Mary Hayden Lemmons, Ph.D. UFFL President, Associate Professor of Philosophy, author of Ultimate Normative Foundations: The Case for Aquinas’s Personalist Natural Law.

Joseph M. Eble, M.D., President of the Tulsa Guild of the Catholic Medical Association and Vice President of Fidelis Radiology. Subjects about which he is passionate include end of life care, adoption, and building bridges between persons of different ethnicity. Dr. Eble’s most recent publication is Catholics United on Brain Death and Organ Donation: A Call to Action, co-authored with John A. Di Camillo, PhD, BeL, and Peter J. Colosi, PhD, and endorsed by over 150 influential Catholics.

Here is a link to register for the conference:

Deep dives into euthanasia in nursing homes; brain death's legal criteria; language, vulnerability & pro-life movement plus more.