National Right to Life Committee

The National Right to Life Committee is the largest right to life/pro-life organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide. The group works through legislation and education to work against abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted suicide. It was founded in Detroit in 1973 in response to the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade which legalized the practice of abortion in all fifty states. It a non-sectarian, non-partisan group whose founding members included leaders in fields of science, religion, law, ethics and medicine. Its board consist of an elected representative from each of the 50 states and several at-large board members.

History
1973 (May) - In response to the US Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision (based on a legal principle of an individual's right to privacy), U.S. pro-life advocates argue that such is superseded by an unborn child's right to life to be protected under the law and created the National Right to Life Committee.

1985 - The Upjohn Company stops all research on drugs to induce an abortion or prevent pregnancies following two years of an Upjohn product boycott by the National Right to Life Committee.

1988 - The National Right to Life Committee joins other pro-life groups in serving notice to drug companies that if any company sells an abortion-inducing drug millions of Americans who oppose abortion will boycott all the company's products.

1994 - The National Right to Life Committee announces a boycott of the French pharmaceutical company Roussel Uclaf and its American affiliates for allowing its abortion drug, mifepristone, into the United States.

1997 (April 2) - The public policy women's organization Concerned Women For America participates in the National Right to Life's press briefing in the National Press Club, standing in support of the boycott against the U.S. subsidiaries of Hoechst AG & Roussel Uclaf, developer and manufacturer of the abortion pill mifepristone, the latest focus of which is the drug Allegra.

2003 - National Right to Life Committee begins actively advocating for the life of Terri Schiavo.

2005 (March 19) - National Right to Life Committee issues an urgent congressional action alert requesting help in urging senators and representatives to resolve differences and pass 'Terri's Law' immediately, which would allow Florida Governor Jeb Bush to intervene in the matter.

2006 (July 19) - National Right to Life Committee commends president Bush's veto of funding for embryonic stem cell research, and rebukes lawmakers who rejected alternatives.

2007 (June 13) - National Right to Life Committee ousts Colorado Right to Life after it ran a full-page ad in The Gazette in May criticizing Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.