Series VIII. LAW AND LEGAL INFORMATION, 1821, 1859, 1964-2004 (#214.27-255.6)

Series VIII, LAW AND LEGAL INFORMATION, 1821, 1859, 1964-2004 (#214.27-255.6), includes legal case files, such as briefs, testimonies, affidavits, appeals, complaints, statements, orders, petitions, decisions, judgements, and depositions; as well as clippings and articles related to pro-life issues and court cases; other writings; notes; press releases; reports; federal and state legislation, bills, acts, and statutes; and related correspondence. The majority of materials relate to abortion and euthanasia; however, other life issues are also reflected in case files, legislation, and articles, including wrongful birth, fetal research, bioethics, status of human embryos, etc. There are legal cases containing briefs, testimonies, etc., involving Massachusetts Citizens for Life, the Value of Life Committee, and other pro-life and pro-choice groups. Pro-life organization materials not pertaining to legal cases are also in this series, including memos, reports, and correspondence from Americans United For Life. Approximately two linear feet of National Right to Life Committee files, which include direct mail letters, meeting minutes, reports, memos, financial information, etc., were removed to Series V.

Legal cases also include the files of A. Lawrence Washburn, Jr., the attorney for Patricia Hughes in the case of Patricia Hughes, et al. v. Robert Abrams, Attorney General of New York. Patricia Hughes was president of Mother and Unborn Baby Care of Long Island (also known as A-A-A Pregnancy Options), which was a crisis pregnancy counseling facility which supported alternatives to abortion. This was a First Amendment rights case where Hughes argued on the basis of freedom of speech to engage in activities such as advertising and counseling women who were actively considering having an abortion, including by disclosing information on fetal development.

Non-legal files of note include transcripts and a final report from the National Institutes of Health Embryo Research Panel meetings (1994). The work of this panel influenced President Bill Clinton's stance against using federal funds to support the creation of human embryos for research purposes. Series also contains statements and testimonies from conservative women who attended the International Women's Year state conventions (1977). The testimonies describe convention sessions and respond to the lack of equitable representation for conservative views. Many believed the sessions promoted the Equal Rights Amendment and anti-family, pro-LGBTQ, and pro-abortion views. These testimonies were presented to Senator Jesse Helms and the Ad Hoc Committee on International Women's Year in the United States Senate.

Cases relating to abortion, such as malpractice, right to abortion, clinic violence, parental consent, etc., are grouped under "Abortion" and arranged in loose chronological order within the grouping. Cases relating to euthanasia, including withholding medical treatment or nutrition/hydration, assisted suicide, right to refuse medical or life sustaining treatment, etc., are grouped together under "Euthanasia" and also arranged in loose chronological order within the grouping. Series arrived mostly unfoldered and without any order. A small set of files were in numbered and titled envelopes; these were kept together at the beginning of the series and arranged in numerical order. The rest of the series is arranged alphabetically.