May 12, 2022

An Open Letter to State Lawmakers from America’s Leading Pro-Life Organizations
To all State Legislators in the United States of America,
With the leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito in Dobbs
v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization that appears to show a majority of the Court may
be in favor of reversing Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, there has been
increasing news coverage of state-level momentum to enact laws that protect mothers andtheir unborn children from the tragedy of abortion.
Over the past 50 years, under the shadow of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, abortion has
taken the lives of more than 63 million unborn American children1. But the tragedy ofabortion isn’t limited to the unborn child who loses her life. The mother who aborts her
child is also Roe’s victim. She is the victim of a callous industry created to take lives; anindustry that claims to provide for “women’s health,” but denies the reality that far too
many American women suffer devastating physical and psychological damage followingabortion.
The abortion industry tries to dismiss reports and studies of post-abortive trauma. Buteven as far back as the 1980s, scientific researchers and the mainstream media weredocumenting the reality of abortion’s consequences.
Studies examining the records of over 50,000 California Medicaid patients from 1989-1994
found women who underwent abortions experienced 2.6 times more psychiatricadmissions in the first 90 days following pregnancy than women who gave birth, and 17%
higher mental health claims over the following four years.2

1 National Right to Life estimate based on data reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control andPrevention through 2019 and the Guttmacher Institute through 2017. See The State of Abortion in the UnitedStates, 2022, updated release May 5, 2022, www.nrlc.org/uploads/communications/stateofabortion2022.pdf.
2 Priscilla Coleman, et al, “State-Funded Abortions vs. Deliveries: A Comparison of Outpatient Mental HealthClaims Over 4 Years,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry Vol. 72, No. 1 (2002), pp. 141-152 compared claims
for first time outpatient mental health treatment in California between 14,297 aborting women and 40,1 22
women who gave birth four years after the event and found the rate of care 17 % higher among the abortinggroup. Another study by P. Coleman and colleagues, “Psychiatric admissions of low-income women followingabortion and childbirth,” Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol. 168, No. 10 (May 13, 2003), available atwww.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/168/10/1253, looked at the records of 56,741 women in the California MediCal system and found aborting women having 2.6 times more psychiatric admissions than women giving birthin the 90 days following the event.

Open Letter to State Lawmakers
May 12, 2022
Page 2A 1989 Los Angeles Times survey3 found 56% of women who had abortions felt guilty about
them, and 26% mostly regretted the abortion. Subsequent studies suggest that thesenumbers may be low, reporting that adverse emotional and psychological effects are
sometimes delayed, not surfacing for 5 or even 10 years after the abortion4.
Despite promises from her partner to the contrary, a woman’s relationship will often
dissolve following an abortion5,6. The clinic staff is gone, and the woman has no desire to
return to the place she associates with failure7. Even friends who know about the abortion
hesitate to bring up the subject. When this happens, she is left to deal with her pain, herdoubts, her questions all alone8.
Women are victims of abortion and require our compassion and support as well as
ready access to counseling and social services in the days, weeks, months, and years
following an abortion.
As national and state pro-life organizations, representing tens of millions of pro-life
men, women, and children across the country, let us be clear: We state unequivocallythat we do not support any measure seeking to criminalize or punish women and westand firmly opposed to include such penalties in legislation.

3 George Skelton, “Abortion often causes guilt, poll finds,” The Sacramento Bee, March 19, 1989, p. A7.
4 J. Trybulski warns about uncomfortable emotions and thoughts that surfaced months or years later

following a woman’s abortion in “Women and abortion: the past reaches into the present,” Journal ofAdvanced Nursing, Vo l. 54, No. 6 (June 2006), pp. 683-90.

5 Winfried Barnett, et al, “Partnership After Induced Abortion: A Prospective Controlled Study,” Archives ofSexual Behavior, Vol. 21, No. 5 (October 1992), pp. 443-455. Barnett and colleagues found that 20 out of the92 aborting couples, or 22%, in their study group had separated after one year. Among the 2,000 plus casesof post abortion trauma that Theresa Burke worked with, she encountered several women whose marriage
dissolved as a consequence of their abortions. See Theresa Burke, Forbidden Grief (Springfield, IL: AcornBooks, 2002), pp. 208, 212, 217.
6 Linda Bird Francke gives classic accounts on pp. 74 and 97 of The Ambivalence of Abortion. Burke offers

examples from cases in Forbidden Grief on pp. 34, Ann Speckhard’s study of thirty high stress aborters in
Psychosocial Stress following Abortion (Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1987) found 46% of her subjects
reporting a subsequent break up with her impregnating partner, Speckhard observes: As the male partner
was often the only other one who knew of the abortion, ending the relationship left a large void in thesubject’s life, which contributed to feelings of loneliness, isolation, and alienation (p . 54).
7 Even forty years after her abortion, “Elsa” tells Linda Bird Francke that “even now I have trouble driving by

the 72nd Street entrance to the West Side Highway in New York where his office was.” Linda Bird Francke,The Ambivalence of Abortion (New York: Dell, 1978), p. 313. Burke quotes a woman in Forbidden Grief whosays “I just can’t go near that place. It freaks me out. I’d rather drive a hundred miles than have to pass thatplace. I just can’t do it. It makes me sick” (p. 94; see also pp. 38-39). Also see Magyari, et al, 1987.
8 An example of such isolation is found in Burke’s Forbidden Grief, p. 189.

Open Letter to State Lawmakers
May 12, 2022
Page 3
If the Supreme Court does overturn Roe v. Wade, they will be honoring the unambiguous
division of powers described in the Constitution, returning abortion policymaking back to
our elected state and federal legislators. This will be a tremendous opportunity for states tocreate durable policy that can stand the test of time. But in seizing that opportunity, wemust ensure that the laws we advance to protect unborn children do not harm theirmothers.
We are America’s leading advocates for life. We come from very different backgrounds andperspectives, but we are united in our mission to protect unborn children and American
women from the greed of the abortion industry. We have been in this fight for decades –many of us have dedicated our lives to this cause. We understand better than anyone elsethe desire to punish the purveyors of abortion who act callously and without regard to thedignity of human life. But turning women who have abortions into criminals is not theway.
In 1977, then-National Right to Life President Dr. Mildred Jefferson observed in her
welcome letter to those attending the annual National Right to Life Convention:
The fight for the right to life is a people's fight for its existence and its continuity. It
is a country's fight for its survival and its future. The right-to-life cause is not theconcern of only a special few but it should be the cause of all those who care about
fairness and justice, love and compassion and liberty with law.
Our charge as a movement has not strayed from those words written by Dr. Jefferson. In
fighting for our country’s future generations, we are called to act with love and compassion
as we seek fairness, justice, and liberty for unborn children and their mothers.
Criminalizing women is antithetical to this charge.
We will continue to oppose legislative and policy initiatives that criminalize women who
seek abortions, and we will continue to work for initiatives that protect unborn children
and policies that provide and strengthen life-affirming resources for abortion-vulnerable
women.
We call upon all pro-life legislators to stand with us. We ask you to continue to act with loveand compassion toward abortion-vulnerable women. We urge you to reject any measurethat seeks to criminalize women who have abortions.

Open Letter to State Lawmakers
May 12, 2022
Page 4Sincerely, for Life,
Carol Tobias
President
National Right to Life

Catherine Glenn Foster
President and CEO
Americans United for Life

Marjorie Dannenfelser
President
Susan B. Anthony List

Jeanne F. Mancini
President
March for Life Action

Archbishop William E. Lori, Chairman
Committee on Pro-Life Activities
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Brent Leatherwood
Acting President
Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
Southern Baptist Convention

Eric J. Scheidler
Executive Director
Pro-Life Action LeagueDr. Gregory P. Seltz
Executive Director
Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty
Ralph Reed, Founder and Chairman
Timothy R. Head, Executive Director
Faith & Freedom Coalition
Aaron Lara
Presidente
Congreso Iberoamericano
por la Vida y la Familia
José L. González
Founder and President
SemillaMarie Ashby
Executive Director
National Association of Pro-Life Nurses
Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa
Founder and President
New Wave Feminists

Bradley Mattes
President
Life Issues InstituteKelsey Hazzard
President
Secular Pro-Life
Kristen Day
Executive DirectorDemocrats for Life of America
O. Carter Snead, J.D.
Directorde Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture
University of Notre Dame
Terrisa Bukovinac
Founder and Executive Director
Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising
Herb Geraghty
Executive Director
Rehumanize International
Joe KralPresident and Editor-in-Chief
Society of St. Sebastian

Open Letter to State Lawmakers
May 12, 2022
Page 5Cheryl Lewis
Director
Alabama Citizens for Life

Martha Zoller
Executive Director
Georgia Life Alliance

Karen Lewis
Director
Pro-Life Alaska

Janet Hochberg
Director
Hawaii Life Alliance

Luis HowardDirector
Arizona State Right to Life

Kerry Uhlenkott
Legislative Coordinator
Right to Life of Idaho

Rose Mimms
Executive Director
Arkansas Right to Life

Dawn Behnke, Esq.
President
Illinois Federation for Right to Life

Brian Johnston
Director
California Pro-Life Council

Mike Fichter
President and CEO
Indiana Right to Life

Chad Schnitger
President
Faith & Freedom Coalition of California

Kristi Judkins
Executive Director
Iowa Right to Life

Steven Ertelt
Director
Colorado Citizens for Life
Editor, LifeNews.com

Steve Scheffler
President
Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition

Suzy Smith
President
Pro-Life Council of Connecticut
Rita Rinaldi
Director
Delaware Citizens for Life
Ross T. Gillfillan, National Director
Derrick Jones, President
DC Metro Life Alliance
Hon. Lynda Bell
President
Florida Right to Life

Maggie DeWitte
Executive Director
Pulse Life Advocates
Mary Wilkinson, President
Carol Dengel, National Director
Kansans for Life
Hon. Addia K. Wuchner, R.N.
Executive Director and CEO
Kentucky Right to Life
Benjamin Clapper
Executive Director
Louisiana Right to Life

Open Letter to State Lawmakers
May 12, 2022
Page 6
Hon. Karen Vachon
President and Executive Director
Maine Right to Life

Roger Stenson
President
New Hampshire Citizens for Life

Darla St. Martin
President
Maryland Right to Life

Anne M. Perone, Esq.
President
New Jersey Committee for Life

Myrna Maloney Flynn
President and CEO
Massachusetts Citizens for Life

Angie Smith, President
Ethel Maharg, Executive Director
Right to Life Committee of New Mexico

Barb Listing
President
Right to Life of Michigan

Anne LeBlanc
Chairman
New York State Right to Life

Scott Fischbach
Executive Director
Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life

Bill Pincus, M.D., President
Barbara Holt, National Director
North Carolina Right to Life

Barbara Whitehead
Director
Mississippi Right to Life

Jason Williams
Executive Director
North Carolina Faith & Freedom Coalition

Susan Klein
Executive Director
Missouri Right to Life

McKenzie McCoy
Executive Director
North Dakota Right to Life

Medora Nagle
Director
Right to Life of Montana

Michael V. Ciccocioppo
Executive Director
Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation

Sandy Danek
Executive Director
Nebraska Right to Life

Christopher Merola
Executive Director
Pennsylvania Faith & Freedom Coalition

Melissa Clement
Executive Director
Nevada Right to Life

Mike Gonidakis
President
Ohio Right to Life

Lance Lemmonds
President
Nevada Faith & Freedom Coalition

Tony Lauinger
State Chairman
Oklahomans for Life

Open Letter to State Lawmakers
May 12, 2022
Page 7Lois Anderson
Executive Director
Oregon Right to Life

Mary Hahn Beerworth
Executive Director
Vermont Right to Life Committee

Barth Bracy
Executive Director
Rhode Island State Right to Life

Olivia Turner
President
Virginia Society for Human Life

Lisa Van Riper, President
Holly Gatling, Executive Director
South Carolina Citizens for Life

Esther Ripplinger
President & CEO
Human Life of Washington

Dale Bartscher, Executive Director
Valerie Johnson, National Director
South Dakota Right to Life

Wanda Franz, Ph.D.
PresidentWest Virginians for Life

Stacy Dunn
President
Tennessee Right to Life

Heather Weininger
Executive Director
Wisconsin Right to LifeMark Hoffman, Ph.D.
Director
Right to Life of Utah

Larry HellPresident
Wyoming Citizens for Life