Week in Review
Charity Watchlist Cautions Donors to Discover Whether Charities Covertly Support Abortion
American Life League’s Charity Watchlist is an online tool that evaluates charities with a simple stoplight green-yellow-red color coding to allow donors to know if they “go ahead” and donate to a nonprofit without reservations, “proceed with caution” after being fully informed of the potential risks, or “stop” any support of an organization that endorses abortion.
“We provide the Charity Watchlist to enable pro-life givers to fully understand what they are supporting with their dollars,” explained Katie Brown, American Life League’s national director. “We can be deeply moved by pictures of sick children or stories about disabled veterans and never know that the charity we support is financing programs that promote abortion or encourage anti-life agendas.”
Brown is disappointed to report that several well-known organizations previously receiving a positive green rating on the Charity Watchlist are reclassified as a negative red due to newly uncovered information. The red ranking is assigned to charities that engage in or support practices that many pro-life advocates find abhorrent.
For example, the American Heart Association, one of the country’s best-known charities, is a nonprofit that no longer holds a green designation. While heart disease is listed as the “number one killer in the United States,” the American Heart Association’s willingness to partner with Planned Parenthood supports the “number one killer of preborn children,” earning it a negative red rating from the Charity Watchlist.
The American Heart Association was previously given a positive green rating on the Charity Watchlist for its life-affirming stance of not permitting human embryos and fetal tissue to be used by grant recipients in AHA-funded research. A recent review of the organization uncovered its 2023 programming partnership with a Virginia Planned Parenthood affiliate, a relationship that has not been severed.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control, 680,909 people died from heart disease in the United States in 2023,” shared Brown. “Yet that is a figure that is only 67% of 1,026,700, the number of children who were killed the same year, according to the Planned Parenthood-founded Guttmacher Institute. The fact that an organization with a mission seeking to save lives would partner with America’s abortion giant is incomprehensible.”
The Wounded Warrior Project was previously classified as green with no noted concerns about life issues. However, this charity geared toward helping veterans is now designated red for its referrals of women to the Department of Veterans Affairs for abortions. Additionally, the Wounded Warrior Project’s advocacy of in vitro fertilization to the United States Congress raised red flags, as well over a million embryonic children are killed annually via this artificial reproduction technology process.
The Charity Watchlist has also bestowed a negative red rating on St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“It’s distressing,” admitted Brown. “St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital seeks support with heartbreaking pictures and stories of sick children, yet multiple members of the organization’s medical staff and teaching faculty are ending the lives of preborn children through embryonic stem cell research.”
“The Charity Watchlist is a significant project in the fight to defend life and the truth,” shared Katherine Van Dyke, American Life League’s lead researcher on the project. “The Charity Watchlist seeks to educate and encourage the public to know, discern, and challenge these organizations by making informed decisions for charitable giving, while providing donors information about alternative charities that promote and support all human life and true charity.”
The Charity Watchlist currently profiles more than 150 tax-exempt nonprofits based on their implementation of life-affirming values or their endorsement of anti-life practices. American Life League promises that the list will continue to grow and invites charitable givers to submit nonprofit groups for Charity Watchlist review. View the current Charity Watchlist at all.org/charity-watchlist.
Pro-Life Group Helps Brings Hope and Peace Outside Abortion Facilities This Advent Season
This month, Pro-Life Action League officially began its 22nd “Peace in the Womb” annual Christmas caroling initiative, where pro-lifers across the country sing Christmas carols outside their local abortion facilities. According to its website, Pro-Life Action League encourages pro-lifers to organize their own caroling day outside a local abortion facility with the intention of bringing “the hope and joy of Christmas to one of the world’s darkest places—the abortion clinic—in hopes that the familiar sounds of Christmas carols will save a life.”
Pro-Life Action League provides several checklist items and resources for pro-life carolers, including song sheets, pro-life banners, suggestions for working with local police, and opportunities to share about the caroling day on social media.
So far, throughout December and into January 2025 there are over 60 caroling events scheduled in 29 states and Washington, DC. Pro-Life Action League lists on its website where and when each of these carol events will take place and how to apply if interested in organizing an event.
Pro-Life Action League shares the importance of these caroling events for mothers and their babies on its website, statingthat “lives have been saved by our peaceful, prayerful witness when women heard our songs from inside the abortion facility and chose life for their children.”
ALL in the News
With end-of-year giving in full swing, ALL’s Charity Watchlist was featured in a press release naming some of the list’s most shocking finds from the year. The Watchlist and the highlights mentioned in the press release were featured in articles from news outlets such as Townhall, LifeSiteNews, and LifeNews.
EWTN featured ALL’s Planned Parenthood research in an article detailing how the abortion giant might lose taxpayer funding when Trump takes office.
Catholic Vote mentioned ALL’s abortion pill report in an article about what the Trump administration might to do dethrone the deadly Planned Parenthood.
Susan Ciancio, editor of Celebrate Life Magazine and director of the Culture of Life Studies Program—ALL’s pre-K-12 pro-life education program—wrote a blog about the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She also wrote about the faux Catholic group Catholics for Choice; this appeared in LifeSiteNews. And she chatted with Deacon Geoff Bennett at Respect Life Radio about the prevalence of the abortion pill and ALL’s new report.
Twice a week, Judie’s commentaries are distributed to an expansive media list. The list contains over 100 media outlets such as Fox News, The Federalist, Breitbart, and The Daily Caller, among others. Judie’s commentaries are each featured on the front page of ALL.org.
Pro-Life Education
Culture of Life Studies Program
Christ, The True Gift of Christmas: This downloadable lesson shows children the story of the first Christmas through the eyes of Santa Claus/St. Nicholas, reinforcing the pro-life message through the life of St. Nicholas and reminding children that Christmas is about God’s greatest gift to us—His Son Jesus. ORDER HERE
The Christmas Star: In this downloadable lesson, students learn about the importance of offering our lives in Jesus’ service. They also learn about the dignity of each person and how Jesus calls us to love one another as He loves us. Using Little Star, a delightful picture book about the smallest star who became the Christmas Star, students learn that even the smallest person is important in God’s plan. At the end of the lesson, students craft a sweet Christmas ornament to remind them that Jesus is the reason for the season. ORDER HERE
Giving with a Happy Heart: Teaching the Culture of Life in Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’: In this lesson, students examine Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol under a pro-life lens to find themes that support the culture of life and reinforce the principle that all human beings are sacred, unrepeatable, and deserving of respect. Students learn what it takes to reach out to the “Scrooges” in daily life and come to understand how they need to treat each person with dignity, regardless of how they are treated in return. ORDER HERE
ALL’s Education Materials
Make a bold, pro-life statement with this comfy 100% Pro-Life T-shirt. Available in numerous sizes, this shirt makes an awesome Christmas present for everyone in your family so that they can all boast their pro-life beliefs and let others know that all human beings are valuable and beloved. SHOP NOW
Pro-Life Social Media
Those Little Red Kettles Aren’t Worth a Dime
♪ Ding-a-ling-a-ding-a-ling-a-ding-a-ling. ♪
No, that isn’t the sound of an annoying and overplayed secular Christmas song. That’s the sound of volunteers standing next to their red kettles hoping you’ll drop in a coin or two. The Salvation Army’s presence outside of Walmart and Target during Advent has become as familiar as Santa’s ride on a firetruck through the neighborhood. But while Santa has things to give during his drive-by, the Salvation Army wants you to give to its charity, which we find to be not-so-charitable.
Watch our 30-second explainer:
The Salvation Army lists three reasons to kill a preborn child. pic.twitter.com/HPiW6B3rZX
— American Life League (@AmerLifeLeague) December 9, 2024