Oregon Right to Life has had long-standing opposition to the use of force, intimidation, and violence by any person pursuing pro-life activities. Our commitment to the well-being of all human life requires that we respect the inherent value and dignity of all people. Just as we condemn abortion and euthanasia, we oppose private acts that take human life, inflict bodily harm, or destroy another’s property. No board member, officer, employee, or chapter officer may participate in any illegal or harmful act against another person or property in pursuing pro-life activity. Oregon Right to Life will not knowingly do business with any organization or business which endorses violence in any way toward pro-abortion persons or businesses.

Oregon Right to Life believes in the sanctity of all human life from the moment of conception to natural death.

Abortion ends the life of a genetically distinct, growing human being. We oppose abortion at any point of gestation. In rare cases, a mother may have a life threatening condition in which medical procedures intended to treat the condition of the mother may result in the unintended death of her preborn baby. At the same time, ORTL recognizes that modern medical practice has and will continue to increase the ability to save both the life of the mother and the baby.

Oregon Right to Life supports the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception until natural death. We oppose all cases of euthanasia, whereby a person is deliberately killed through direct action or omission even if that act is by their permission. (In contrast, a person who chooses to refuse life-prolonging treatment is not committing physician-assisted suicide but is rather allowing nature to take its course.) Examples of euthanasia include allowing disabled newborns to die of routinely treatable medical conditions, withholding food or water from the comatose or lethally injecting a terminally ill patient. In Oregon, the legal form of euthanasia is physician assisted suicide, and is euphemistically called “death with dignity.” In this act, a physician prescribes lethal drugs knowing their patient intends to use the drugs to commit suicide.

Oregon Right to Life (ORTL) advocates for innocent human life from fertilization until natural death. Therefore, ORTL opposes infanticide, which is defined as the intentional ending of the life of any human infant from birth through the first year of age. This includes not only active violence, but also withdrawal or withholding of care, such as fluids, nutrition, and life-saving medical or surgical treatments. A subset of infanticide is neonaticide, which is the destruction of a child in the first month after live birth. This often happens within several hours of delivery as a response to an unwanted pregnancy or an unexpected disability or deformity. This earliest form of neonaticide is sometimes referred to as “post-birth abortion.”

Experimentation on human beings, born or preborn, must be with full and informed consent unless consent is impossible due to age or condition of the person involved. When informed consent is not possible, experimentation is acceptable only if it is for the intended benefit of the patient and the amount of pain and risk have been considered. All other human experimentation is unequivocally condemned including the gathering of scientific data by the experimentation on a human being scheduled for death or in the process of being killed.

Oregon Right to Life takes no position on any birth control method which prohibits the sperm and egg from uniting. Once the sperm and egg have united, however, a new human life begins and ORTL opposes any drug, device, or procedure which destroys the new human life. ORTL supports the full disclosure of information by a physician to women considering contraceptives. ORTL supports the right of medical professionals to exercise their conscience in all medical care.

The natural process of human conception is the union of egg and sperm within the maternal body, which provides the safest and most supportive environment for the maturation of the newly created human being. Oregon Right to Life (ORTL) upholds the natural process of human conception. ORTL opposes any techniques of human conception occurring outside of the maternal body which lead to the destruction of human life, whether for family growth or experimentation.

Oregon Right to Life opposes human cloning for any purpose. All humans have equal value. Cloning results in a human that has the same nuclear DNA as another human. Human beings produced by scientific bioengineering have the same inherent value as humans produced by natural processes. Human beings should not be produced for experimentation (therapeutic cloning) because they are not mere tools for research. Cloning humans would likely result in numerous deaths, just as animal cloning has. Such a result would violate each embryo’s right to life. Producing human beings to assist reproduction (reproductive cloning) is broadly condemned because it is dangerous to the clones, ethically irresponsible, and treats human beings as mere merchandise in a commercialized reproductive process. 

Oregon Right to Life affirms the inherent value of all human beings from the moment of fertilization to natural death. As such, ORTL asserts that all human lives started by any form of natural or assisted reproduction for cloning for any purpose, are to be protected from intentional harm.

Oregon Right to Life opposes both the destruction of human embryos created by any method and any research conducted with human embryonic stem cells. Research is unethical if it is predicated on the destruction of one human being for the gain of another.

Oregon Right to Life supports the current successful medical research and treatments with non-embryonic stem cells (e.g. those from umbilical cord blood and adult tissues).

Oregon Right to Life does not take a position on the death penalty. The death penalty, when carried out by due process of law, is punishment for a capital crime which kills the person after being found guilty. Abortion is not a punishment, yet it kills an innocent person without due process of law. Oregon Right to Life is dedicated to protecting innocent human life and remains neutral on capital punishment.