Insisting on Life features commentary, reflections and news from Maria McFadden Maffucci and special guests.

The name is taken from the title the Human Life Review gave to the collection of essays from the late, great pro-life journalist and Review contributor Nat Hentoff—published when we honored him with our Great Defender of Life Award in 2005.

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Maria McFadden Maffucci is editor in chief of the Human Life Review and President of the Human Life Foundation.

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Posts

Miracles Do Happen!

[Editor’s note: This story arrived in my mailbox—on actual paper!—and it warmed my heart.  It is printed here with the author’s permission.] Here I am, 85 years old and during those years never once thought that a miracle would happen to me. But, IT DID! During my life, a miracle...
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For the love of women . . . please . . . prove me wrong.

(The following is reprinted from a Facebook post with the permission of Destiny Herndon-de la Rosa, president and founder of  of New Wave Feminists.) I’m terrified that if Roe is overturned, pro-lifers will think their job is done when in reality, it’s just the beginning of our work. My biggest...
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Learning from AOC

As a pro-lifer, I never suspected I would find myself agreeing with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a matter concerning abortion.  But despite being resolutely pro-abortion, her comments about the Texas Heartbeat Act, which prohibits abortion after six weeks, gave the pro-life movement something to...
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March for Life 2022: Signs of our Times

Many have bemoaned that we have become a Twitter culture, where slogans have taken the place of argument.  I am one of them.  But, as they say,  it is what it is.  And, slogans can be revealing as well. Let me suggest a simple experiment.  If you want to explore the character of the...
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Bereavement Leave after Abortion

(Here is an insightful column from Human Life Review contributor, Professor Anne Hendershott, published in The American Conservative. ) The Truth of Abortion in Deep Blue Cities   Portland was first in the nation to provide bereavement leave for its employees after abortion, and its policy...
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The Left’s Failure: Why Nat Hentoff Lost His Friends

(This first appeared on our site on January 23, 2017. The visual is an original Nick Downes cartoon created for  Hentoff’s Great Defender of Life Award, in 2005) He shocked his friends, and lost a good many of them. He said something no one in his circles would say. In doing so, he...
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Epiphany 2022

I don’t like it when the Church moves feast days. Today, January 6, is the feast of the Epiphany—even though the Church celebrated it last Sunday. January 6 is special in my family of origin because it’s the birthday of my parents’ first born, Robert—who died, 27 years ago, at the age of 34. Of...
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Death by Mail: Chemical Abortions Require a New Pro-Life Approach

  In light of the very sad news that the FDA has permanently lifted restrictions on “abortion pills by mail,”  I am sharing again a blog first published on our site in January, 2019.  Joe Bissonnette’s blog rightly focuses on the developing baby. But this news is also...
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Mary Immaculate

Today is the Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception. It is often misunderstood: many think it refers to the conception of Jesus and the Virgin birth. But it is Mary’s conception in the womb of her mother we celebrate. Mary’s conception was immaculate because God ordained that she be...
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Thoughts on the Dobbs Oral Arguments

(Reprinted with permission from Stepping out of the Boat, Ed Mechmann’s public policy blog, December 2, 2021. Image thanks to Feminists Choosing Life of New York.) Ed Mechmann is a life-long New Yorker, a graduate of Columbia College and Harvard Law School, and a former state and federal...
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Integrity and Character: Marvin Olasky

We were surprised to see a New York Times headline this week:  His Reasons for Opposing Trump Were Biblical. Now a Top Christian Editor Is Out. A clash over culture and politics comes to World, a groundbreaking journalistic that covers evangelical Christians. Marvin Olasky, our recent Great...
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“Clown Abortion” Comedy Skit Punches Down

You may have seen or read about the recent Saturday Night Live Weekend Update skit ridiculing the Texas Heartbeat Act. Longtime cast member Cecily Strong appeared as “Goober the Clown” to talk about the “clown abortion” she had when she was 23 years old, saying: “It’s a rough subject, so we...
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