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.

DOWNLOAD the book here!

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

3,022 people have visited this page. 1 have visited this page today.

Posts

Jeanneane Maxon, Warrior for Christ

My friend Jeanneane Nicole Maxon inspires me every day. I first got to know her  from afar when we both attended a quarterly meeting of national, pro-life leaders in Washington DC. Maxon was then vice president of external affairs and corporate counsel for Americans United for Life, and she...
Read More →
Medication risks image

The Little Discussed But High Blood Clot Risk of Hormonal Birth Control

In April, the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine received scrutiny after six women experienced a rare blood clot condition, causing the United States to pause its distribution “out of an abundance of caution.” Immediately, some trying to downplay the risk compared the J&J vaccine to...
Read More →

Biden, the Bishops and Hyde

As expected, President Biden has made good on his promise to ditch the Hyde Amendment, dropping it from the federal budget proposal he released the Friday before the long Memorial Day weekend. The amendment, named, of course, for the late great Congressman Henry J. Hyde, was first passed in...
Read More →

Down Syndrome and Social Media: Will Visibility Save Lives?

  Most of us by now have our favorite social-media stars; mine are an irrepressible pair of youngsters named Ollie and Cameron, identical twins who have Down syndrome, born March 2013 in Dundee. They’re basically my favorite Scotsmen, excepting David Tennant. Their mum’s posts of the boys’...
Read More →

Supreme Court to Hear Case Challenging Roe v. Wade

“Supreme Court to Review Mississippi Law Limiting Abortion Rights High court will take up state appeal seeking to ban the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy, giving justices opportunity to revisit Roe v. Wade.” This morning, the Supreme Court agreed to consider a Mississippi law, rejected by...
Read More →

Howard Zucker: Are You There and Do You Care?

On May7, New York Assemblywoman Melissa “Missy” Miller (R, Atlantic Beach) held a virtual press conference about the continued—and inexcusable—neglect of the rights of the state’s disabled population and their loved ones. She appealed directly to Howard Zucker, Commissioner of the New York...
Read More →
human chromosomes

State Laws are Targeting Eugenic Abortion

Abortion is often referenced today in the context of the healthcare of the mother. Despite the fact that, as groups like Live Action have persuasively pointed out, abortion is never necessary for the health of the mother (early labor might be needed, and the fetus may not survive, but...
Read More →

The “Poisonous Fruit” of Planned Parenthood

A New York Times op ed (April 17) declares in its headline: “I’m Head of Planned Parenthood. We’re Done Making Excuses for Our Founder.” And yet, Alexis McGill Johnson, president and chief executive of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America,  spends much of her column doing just that:...
Read More →

The Reason I Jump

  The Reason I Jump is a remarkable film, a powerful documentary directed by Jerry Rothwell, that invites viewers to experience autism—from the inside. How is this possible? The idea for the film came from a groundbreaking book of the same name by a 13- year-old severely autistic Japanese...
Read More →

I Have a Wanted Pregnancy, And Yet I’ve Received Pressure to Un-Want It: Who or what determines quality of life?

I am so pleased to introduce my first guest here at Insisting on Life. Mary Rose Somarriba is editor of Natural Womanhood and associate editor of Verily Magazine. She lives with her husband and three children in Cleveland, Ohio. The following is reprinted with permission, from Verily....
Read More →

We Don’t Need More Death

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, issued a pastoral letter on the Feast of St. Joseph (“After the Worst of the Coronavirus: Fostering a Culture of Life as a People of Hope,” March 19) that exhorts Catholic New Yorkers to stand up against the assisted suicide bill...
Read More →

A “Symphony of Two Hearts”

This past Sunday, March 21, was World Down Syndrome Day, celebrated widely on social media, even with a new original song from celebrity Sting. My thoughts turned to the scientist and physician who discovered the genetic cause of Down syndrome, Dr. Jérôme Lejeune, a heroic defender of all human...
Read More →