BDF attorneys Nikolas Nikas and Dorinda Bordlee sincerely thank the countless unsung heroes across the nation who dedicate their lives and support to the pro-life movement’s common mission of putting law in the service of life. We invite you to review BDF’s top 11 initiatives of 2011 and contact us in 2012 to help bring these iniatives to your state!
1. Groundbreaking BDF-drafted “Signs of Hope” law – requiring life-affirming abortion alternative signs to be hung in abortion clinics – enacted and put into effect by La. Department of Health. See the official sign and link to the La. DHH website!
2. Federal amicus brief filed in Obamacare case, informing the 11th Circuit of the conscience-violating abortion premium mandate. BDF is lead counsel on the pro-life amicus brief soon to be filed in the U.S. Supreme Court.
3. Law School debates and presentations by the BDF Hannan Institute project build on our list of dozens across the nation including Rutgers, Creighton, Univ. of Nebraska, DePaul, Brooklyn School of Law, and Ave Maria.
4. Education to over 400 physicians and medical students, including a group of students at University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, Creighton Medical School, and medical students and post-doc scientists at the Witherspoon Institute’s summer bioethics seminar held on the campus of Princeton University.
5. In a decisive defeat for the abortion industry with far-reaching implications, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Arizona Court of Appeals rejected Planned Parenthood’s arguments that the state constitution provided broader abortion rights than the federal constitution – and upheld the 2009 Abortion Consent Act, with BDF consulting in the litigation and legislation.
6. Senior Concerns seminars sponsored by organizations including the Catholic Foundation of New Orleans and other church parishes featured BDF attorneys addressing the Catholic position on end of life decision-making.
7. Briefed scholars at the inaugural meeting of the Witherspoon Council on Ethics & the Integrity of Science, co-chaired by Princeton Professor Robert P. George and Dr. Donald Landry of Columbia Medical Center, whose mission is to study the ethical and policy questions related to the human life sciences.
8. Acquired rights to cutting-edge white papers published by Fr. Thomas Berg’s Westchester Institute in conjunction with leading scholars – including Emergency Contraceptives & Catholic Healthcare, and When Does Human Life Begin: A Scientific Perspective (filed in the federal D.C. Circuit on behalf of BDF science advisor Dr. Maureen Condic in the case challenging public funding of research that requires the destruction of human embryos).
9. Catholic Academy for Life Leadership (CALL), an engaging program for high school students launched in the Diocese of Phoenix, with segments on the philosophical basis for bioethics in the service of the human person developed and taught by BDF’s Nikolas Nikas.
10. EWTN’s Vaticano television program covered BDF’s participation in the Rome Matercare medical conference, highlighting the Signs of Hope initiative.
11. And last, but certainly not least, National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez accepted the BDF Witness for Life Award, and delivered an engaging address entitled Roe at the Edge of 40: The Best of Times and the Worst of Times.
Thank you for your commitment to the dignity of every human life and for your generous support. May God bless you and yours, as we stand together to put law in the service of life in 2012.
Together, we are hope in action.
Together, we can be their voice.