Pro-Life Organizations: Which Lives?

This is part of a continuing series.

When looking at pro-life organizations, I wanted to see which groups were actually non-violent and which were not. I choose not to be somewhat of a smart-aleck and include such things as opposition to war, and the death penalty (which most organizations were not), and I choose to overlook such organizations that were anti-stem cell research (which could potentially save thousands of lives), but do a narrow focus on their tactics and actions. This was particularly difficult, as there were many organizations that professed peace, but then did bullying tactics or their founders were in jail for murder of a doctor or something. To bridge this gap, I included if they either condoned violence, or had ties to violent groups. Bullying tactics such as yelling "baby-killer" to passing women going into abortion clinics did not get classified as violent, but if they had signs that suggested that "baby-killers" should be shot, I included that in "condones violence". If the group advocated for harassment of doctors, I stuck that it the "ties to violence" block, as well. I also did not differentiate between organizations that had no ties to violence but did not condemn the violence of other pro-life organizations and organizations that had no ties to violence AND condemned the violence of other pro-life organizations.

UPDATE- I'm linking to where I found violence for the groups.

Army of God- http://www.armyofgod.com/POClist.html

Life Dynamics Inc- http://www.kaisernetwork.org/frame/index.cfm?goto=http://www.kaisernetwork.org/reports/2000/03/kr000322.4.htm
Uses harassment and stalking against doctors.

Missionaries to the Preborn- http://www.mhrn.org/publications/fact%20sheets%20and%20adivsories/Missionaries.pdf

Missionaries to the Unborn- http://www.mttu.com/elijahmin/PPWrite-In%20Campaign.htm

Operation Rescue- http://www.now.org/nnt/05-98/scheidler.html

Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust- Founder was jailed for violence: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors_of_the_Abortion_Holocaust but organization does condemn violence.

Pro-Life Organizations: Do they help women raise babies?

This is part of a continuing series.

If an organization was truly pro-life, they would try an attack the causes of abortion (unwanted pregnancy), and the major reason cited for abortion (financial constraints). The best way to do this is community support for children. I put in organizations that did not support governmental assistance, but did support "pregnancy crisis centers" of some variety. These centers generally run from a place to stay during pregnancy and the first year, to some material assistance (diapers, formula, teddy bears, et cetera).

UPDATE-

I changed the graph, because Army of God does not support Pregnancy Crisis Centers. They do not address welfare. Sorry for the mistake.

Pro-Life Organizations: For Sex Ed?

This is part of continuing series.

In tandem with contraceptives, there is a strong correlation with comprehensive sexual education and low unwanted pregnancy rates (and corresponding low abortion rates). "Abstinence Only" education has been associated with higher rates of unwanted pregnancy then no sexual education at all.

Pro-Life Organizations: Are they for contraception?

This is part of a continuing series.

I also wanted to determine if pro-life organizations supported the most effective way to reduce abortion rates, which is increased contraception use. If the organization was fine with they barrier methods, but not hormonal methods like the pill, I gave them "limited support for contraceptives". If it was "Natural Family Planning" but against all other forms, I put them in "anti-contraceptives". If they were opposed to one form of contraceptives, and did not address others, I put them in "opposed contraceptives".

UPDATE
To clarify, if a group gets put into "opposes contraceptive" it does not necessarily mean that they wish to criminalize it. But, if an organization supports Pharmacists "right" to not dispense birth control, or if they said that contraceptives contribute to a "culture of death" or "a child-unfriendly environment" I put that in "opposes contraceptives", even if they don't speak to making it illegal.

UPDATE the Second
In order to be more fair, I looked over the organizations again, and added whether or not they were against birth control, or whether or not they were against some types of contraceptives and did not address other ones. I went over the ones that also didn't address contraceptives, and found some of them did actually oppose Emergency contraceptive, so they were added to the last list.

Pro-Life Organizations: Are the Secular?

Awhile back on Punkassblog, I said I was going to do some investigating into Pro-Life Organizations. Unfortunately, Wordpress seems to not like me, so this post will be exclusively here where it all began, Teller of Truths.

The only pro-life organizations I looked at were groups in the United States on the national level, that were on the Wikipedia pro-life organization list.

The first thing I checked was whether or not the organization was secular, or explicitly Chrsitian (none of the organizations claimed any other kind of religious affiliation). They were considered to have ties to Christian organizations if they had three articles that spoke from a Christian perspective, and/or linked to five Christian organizations.

Pro-Life Organizations: Women's concerns?

This is part of a continuing series on pro-life organizations.

To see if pro-life organizations were really about women's concerns, I then looked to see how many of them were run by men or women (as sort of an easy marker). Abortion concerns being particularly related to women, as (aside from Mr. Beatty) they are the only one's who can get pregnant, they are the ones who should have the most to say about it.

I looked at who ran the organizations, and how balanced the board was.