- Vision Statement
- The vision of the North Dakota Right to Life Association
is that all vulnerable persons in our society are protected throughout the span
of their lives from conception to natural death. It is our vision that all
euthanasia and abortion be ended and that every person's attitude and
commitment changes to a fervent respect for all innocent human life.
- Description and Mission Statement
- The North Dakota Right to Life Association has been in existence since May 21, 1971.
The Association is governed by a Board of Directors and administered by an Executive
Committee. Both bodies are comprised of Association members who serve in a volunteer capacity.
The Association supports paid office staff to carry out the directives of the
Board of Directors and of the Executive Committee.
The North Dakota Right to Life Association is a not-for-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian,
grass roots volunteer organization dedicated to the protection of all innocent
human life from conception to natural death.
The North Dakota Right to Life Association works toward its Vision by educating its
members and the general public about abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia in a peaceful,
factual, and legal manner. The Association works toward its Vision by involvement in the
legislative and political action processes as necessary.
- Operational Creed
- The North Dakota Right to Life Association believes in the sanctity of all innocent
human life. However, recognizing the reality of our imperfect society, the Association
sees the necessity of working in an incremental fashion to protect as many lives as
possible while still striving to achieve its Vision that all euthanasia and abortion be ended.
- Abortion Statement
- Abortion is any procedure performed with the sole and willful intent to cause the
death of the preborn child. Therefore, the North Dakota Right to Life Association opposes
abortion in any form or for any reason in keeping with its Operational Creed of working
in an incremental fashion.
This position does not oppose medical treatment to save the life of the mother which
may result in the unintended death of the baby. The unintended death of the baby is
not to be construed as abortion. Medical treatment intended solely to improve the
mother's quality of life is not sufficient reason for sacrificing the child's life.
While the Association abhors the violence of rape and incest and sympathizes with
its victims, caring for the victim cannot justify killing innocent life.
The Association believes that a human being once conceived has the innate
right to life regardless of disabilities or gender.
The North Dakota Right to Life Association opposes the conception of a child for
the purpose of harvesting the tissues through induced abortion.
The Association opposes fetal experimentation on living babies from induced abortion
which is not beneficial or intended to be beneficial to the subject of the experiments
regardless of any benefit to other members of society.
The Association is opposed to any drug or medicine which is capable of and used
with the intent of producing abortion. The Association is also opposed to "contraceptives"
that are in fact abortifacients.
A father being an equal partner in the conception of a child has the right to protect
his child from abortion. While the North Dakota Right to Life Association recognizes
that with every right comes responsibility, the focus of this organization is on the
protection of life.
The Association believes in alternatives to abortion which encourage women to give birth
to their babies. The Association educates women on prenatal development and refers
women to appropriate services such as crisis pregnancy centers, Birthright, and
adoption agencies. The North Dakota Right to Life Association encourages its members
and the public to be involved in pregnancy support services in the state. The Association
recognizes the need for services for mother and child; however, the main focus of this
Association is to guarantee the basic right to life.
The North Dakota Right to Life Association recognizes Post Abortion Syndrome as being
comparable to Post Traumatic Stress disorder (see Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders 3 of Diagnostic Psychiatric Association's DSM-III revised edition) which
is defined as a delayed response to an abnormal experience. The Association believes
the surviving victims of abortion need the support of family, clergy, and community.
North Dakota Right to Life works to educate men and women about the abortion
experience and its aftermath, and seeks to protect women and their families by working
to enact informed consent laws. Members of the Association are involved in support
groups to assist the victims of Post Abortion Syndrome.
- Position Statement on Adoption
- The North Dakota Right to Life Association recognizes that a policy of totally
and permanently sealed original birth certificates and other adoption record information
could result in some abortions because of the impossibility of that mother ever being
able to hope for an eventual meeting with her child.
The Association also recognizes that a policy of open records could likewise result
in some abortions because some mothers will not carry their pregnancies to term and
place their babies for adoption if they know that their sought-for seal of
confidentiality may be broken some day and an unwanted meeting occur.
North Dakota Right to Life believes that a passive, mutual consent, voluntary
registry which would be available to the adopted child after twenty-one years of
age respects the needs, deep personal wishes, and privacy of all, and will result in
fewer abortions.
The North Dakota Right to Life Association endorses and supports the concept of
such a registry and opposes either total and permanent sealing of such original birth
certificates and records or opening them such as proposed "open record" legislation
would do.
In keeping with the Association's belief in alternatives to abortion which
encourage women to give birth to their babies, North Dakota Right to Life also
supports any reasonable effort to correct abuses in adoption practices while at
the same time expediting adoptions.
- Position Statement on Welfare Reform
- North Dakota Right to Life recognizes that all children conceived have a
legitimate right to be born, regardless of the age or marital status of their
mother, and has always supported alternatives to abortion and aid to women
facing crisis pregnancies. The Association also recognizes that studies have
shown that one of the most common reasons women give for seeking abortions
is that they "cannot afford a baby now."
Recent proposals for "welfare reform" have included proposals to deny assistance
to unmarried teenage mothers and their children and to children born to women
already receiving public assistance. North Dakota Right to Life reaffirms its commitment
to alternatives to abortion and opposes the denial of assistance to newborn children,
who would otherwise qualify for assistance, based on the age, marital status or
welfare status of the mother.
Further the Board directs the Executive Director and Executive Committee to
take appropriate action to protect women and children from any denial of assistance
due to proposed changes in the welfare system.
- Position Statement on Euthanasia
- Euthanasia is a willful action or an omission by a person or entity which,
of itself or by intention, causes the death of another person whose quality of life
is considered of lesser value. The North Dakota Right to Life Association rejects
the concept of euthanasia as an act of compassion and rejects using "quality of life"
as a basis to determine whether life should continue. An example of a willful action
would be intentionally causing death by lethal injection or a drug overdose. An example
of omission would be failure to treat the respiratory infection of a non-dying individual.
The Association recognizes the limitations of medical science and realizes that there
is a time when medicine is at an end and death is imminent (one week or less). In this
situation North Dakota Right to Life takes the position that ordinary care, such as
comfort care, relief of pain, and provision of nutrition and hydration (provided the
body can assimilate it) is ethically mandatory for all patients.
North Dakota Right to Life also recognizes the situation of a terminal condition which is
defined as an incurable illness or injury (even though death is not imminent) where a
reasonable prudent physician, knowledgeable about the case, and the treatment possibilities,
would judge that the person would live three months or less regardless of treatment.
North Dakota Right to Life does not take a position on medical treatment but would require
the continuation of ordinary care as previously defined.
Euthanasia threatens certain categories of people based on a so-called quality of life:
the elderly, the incompetent, the disabled and infants. Some conditions which render
a person incompetent would be any form of senility, Alzheimer's disease, mental retardation,
mental illness, or comatose conditions. It is the position of North Dakota Right to Life
that medical treatment and nutrition and hydration must be provided regardless of a
person's "quality of life". The Association rejects the withdrawal of care to persons
the sole intent of which is to hasten and/or cause death. North Dakota Right to Life
believes the presumption of medical treatment should be to protect life and enhance that
life as much as possible. In all cases when the body can assimilate nutrition and hydration,
every means should be taken to provide it naturally. When necessary, artificial nutrition
and hydration must be administered.
The North Dakota Right to Life Association opposes any attempts to legalize passive or
active euthanasia.
- Position Statement on Assisted Suicide
- It is the position of the North Dakota Right to Life Association that to be involved
in helping another individual to commit suicide, whether passively or actively, is to
aid in causing a person's death. Because the Association believes in the sanctity of
human life, it stands in opposition to legalizing assisted suicide by individuals
or through state-sanctioned methods.
The Association's belief in the sanctity of life is also extended to those who are
suffering physically and/or mentally. The Association believes in alternatives to
assisted suicide which encourage people to choose life and not death. The Association
encourages its members and the public to be involved in hospice and other services in
the state. The medical community is encouraged to be cognizant of and utilize the
many means available to relieve suffering.
The North Dakota Right to Life Association believes that the method of or reason for
assisting suicide is morally irrelevant and will oppose any efforts to legalize
assisted suicide for any class of people and/or by any means.
- Position Statement on the Determination of Death
- The North Dakota Right to Life Association believes that the North Dakota Uniform
Determination of Death Act is flawed because it allows for the determination of death
based solely on the function of the brain.
The Association believes that death is the cessation of physical life. The Association
believes that death is determined by irreversible cessation of the respiratory system
and irreversible cessation of the circulatory system and irreversible cessation of all
functions of the entire brain.
Currently there are thirty different sets of criteria for determining brain death.
(Byrne, Paul A. and Evers, Joseph C. "Brain Death - Still a Controversy", Alpha
Omega-Alpha Honor Medical Society, 1990) Due to this lack of scientific certitude
in determining brain death, the Association asserts that in all cases the presumption
should be for life.
- Resolution On Human Embryos
- We commend President Bush's decision to prevent the federal government from becoming
involved in research and experimentation that would require the deliberate destruction
of human embryos. In taking this position, the President has acted to save the lives
that he could.
We further commend President Bush's strong opposition to all human cloning and to the
creation of human embryos for research purposes.
We mourn the lives of those children who were killed to derive the sixty-plus
stem cell lines that currently exist. Neither President Bush nor his administration
had anything to do with the destruction of those embryos or the establishment
of those cell lines. Certainly, if the President could have prevented the death of
those embryos, he would have. President Bush has shown his commitment to protecting
the lives that he can.
Now, the pro-life movement must focus its energy to stop the efforts in Congress
that would require the destruction of human embryos for research purposes.
- Position Statement of Stem Cell Research
- The North Dakota Right to Life Association opposes the killing of human embryos for stem cell research.
The Association recognizes that research on adult stem cells has been shown to be promising or beneficial to many different diseases or disorders, including breast cancer, coronary heart diseaase, congestive heart failure, multiple sclerosis, leukemia, Parkinson's Disease, sickle cell anemia, and spinal cord injuries; and does not require the killing of human lives at their earliest stages of development.
In keeping with the Association's beliefs, the North Dakota Right to Life Association believes stem cell research should only be of the kind that does not require the destruction of human life.
- Women and Abortion
- The North Dakota Right to Life Association, while acknowledging the reality of our imperfect society, recognizes a woman who has an abortion as the second victim of the abortion holocaust.
Women faced with unexpected pregnancies are often coerced from loved ones who insist that abortion is the best solution. Pressure to do the "right" thing is usually done out of love for the woman with the sincere belief that such care will be appreciated later on. At other times loved ones will push abortion on a woman - not out of concern for her - but out of concern for themselves. This is all done in a culture of lies with a society that too often leaves her alone with her "choice."
The Association encourages compassion, unconditional love, and forgiveness. These should guide our response to the woman who has an abortion. This in turn gives her hope and healing.
- Comprehensive School-Based Health Clinics
- The North Dakota Right to Life Association recognizes the lack of health care
services for teens in some geographic areas. Because the main focus of this Association
is to guarantee the basic right to life, the Association opposes the establishment
of in-school comprehensive health clinics as a solution. These clinics historically
have been used to encourage and/or procure abortion among junior and senior high
students. Furthermore, school-based clinics receiving federal funding are bound to
confidentiality which excludes parental involvement and circumvents parental consent
laws.
The Association believes in alternatives to school-based clinics and encourages
students facing unplanned pregnancies to make use of the services of pro-life crisis
pregnancy centers, Birthright, and adoption agencies.
