Americans United for Life, which has ranked states on governmental issues from abortion to euthanasia for seven years, chose Louisiana to top the list because it "has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to life" and pushed laws protecting women considering abortions.
Charmaine Yoest, AUL president, said, "As the legal arm of the pro-life movement, the AUL legal team has created the legal architecture for reversing Roe v. Wade. The states are preparing for the day after Roe. And as the 'Life List' documents, we're seeing tremendous gains in defending life in law."
The president's home states of Illinois and Hawaii rank 34th and 48th. Obama is pro-choice and a champion of Planned Parenthood, defending taxpayer funding to the group despite GOP objections.
Key points in the annual Life List provided to Whispers:
-- For the second time in three years, Louisiana is among the tops in the Life List. "Louisiana has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to life and an unwillingness to rest on prior accomplishments, instead enacting innovative, protective laws year after year such as last year's 'Signs of Hope' which protects women considering abortion from coercion," said AUL.
-- "For the third year in a row, Washington, California, and Hawaii rank as the List's least life-affirming states," said AUL. "These states lack the most basic laws to protect women and the unborn from the harms inherent in abortion and have embraced a variety of destructive policies such as support for research on human embryos and assisted suicide."
-- "The List's 'most improved' states are Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, and Utah," said AUL. "Each of these states enacted multiple life-affirming laws in 2011--most notably, Indiana, Kansas, and North Carolina took steps to de-fund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers."
The Life List
AUL's State Rankings
1. Louisiana
2. Oklahoma
3. Pennsylvania
4. Nebraska
5. Arkansas
6. Missouri
7. Texas
8. South Dakota
9. North Dakota
10. Indiana
11. Kansas
12. Kentucky
13. Georgia
14. Arizona
15. Mississippi
16. Virginia
17. Ohio
18. Michigan
19. Idaho
20. South Carolina
21. Utah
22. Alabama
23. Tennessee
24. Minnesota
25. North Carolina
26. Wisconsin
27. Colorado
28. Florida
29. Rhode Island
30. Maine
31. Delaware
32. New Hampshire
33. West Virginia
34. Illinois
35. Wyoming
36. Iowa
37. Alaska
38. Massachusetts
39. New Mexico
40. Maryland
41. Nevada
42. Connecticut
43. New Jersey
44. New York
45. Oregon
46. Montana
47. Vermont
48. Hawaii
49. California
50. Washington
- Check out our gallery of Whispers political caricatures.
- Want your Whispers first? Check out U.S. News Weekly.
- Read New Planned Parenthood Abortion Charges.
Clarification: A previous version of this story was based off of the 2011 list, not the 2012 list.
Reader Comments Read all comments (1)
jj of MD 11:18AM January 19, 2012