Life Dynamics Inc. (LDI) is an
anti-abortion
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its Abortion by country, legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in r ...
organization founded by
Mark Crutcher in 1992. It is headquartered in
Denton, Texas
Denton is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, Denton County. With a population of 139,869 as of 2020, it is the List of cities in Texas by population, 20th-most populous city in Texas, the List of Un ...
.
Company profile
(PPFA) lists LDI on its "Profiles of 15 Anti-Choice Organizations".
[Weiss, Deborah. (2001).]
Profiles of 15 Anti-Choice Organizations
." Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Retrieved August 23, 2006. PPFA says that LDI is opposed to
abortion
Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...
, as well as research using fetal tissue or
embryonic stem cells
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are Cell potency#Pluripotency, pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, an early-stage pre-Implantation (human embryo), implantation embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4†...
.
In founding Life Dynamics, Crutcher said that he wanted to fill the gaps left by other organizations. One shortcoming he noticed was in what he called "professional
counter-intelligence
Counterintelligence (counter-intelligence) or counterespionage (counter-espionage) is any activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting ac ...
or
intelligence-gathering
This is a list of intelligence gathering disciplines.
HUMINT
Human intelligence (HUMINT) are gathered from a person in the location in question. Sources can include the following:
* Advisors or foreign internal defense (FID) personnel w ...
". Thus, Crutcher focuses his organization's efforts on operations involving gathering new data on
abortion facilities and organizations which support
abortion rights
Abortion-rights movements, also self-styled as pro-choice movements, are movements that advocate for legal access to induced abortion services, including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their p ...
.
LDI is endorsed by
Alan Keyes
Alan Lee Keyes (born August 7, 1950) is an American politician, political scientist, and perennial candidate who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1985 to 1987. A member of the Republican P ...
, who referred to LDI as "a cutting edge approach to spreading the message of the pro-life movement";
Joseph Scheidler of
Pro-Life Action League, who says, "I appreciate everything Life Dynamics does"; Judy Brown of
American Life League
American Life League, Inc. (ALL) is an American Catholic activist organization which opposes abortion, all forms of contraception, embryonic stem cell research, and euthanasia. Its current president is co-founder Judie Brown and its headquarters i ...
, who praised LDI for aggressiveness and accuracy;
Dr. Jack Willke of
Life Institute and
International Right to Life Federation, who calls LDI "a spear carrier"; and
Father Frank Pavone
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. A biological fathe ...
of
Priests for Life
Priests for Life (PFL) is an anti-abortion organization based in Titusville, Florida. PFL functions as a network to promote and coordinate anti-abortion movements, anti-abortion activism, especially among Roman Catholic priests and laymen, with t ...
, who appears regularly on LDI's'' LifeTalk'' program.
[Endorsements For Life Dynamics]
." (2003). ''Lorain County Right to Life.'' Retrieved August 23, 2006.
Dr. Warren Hern, an abortion provider in
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...
, said, "we cannot underestimate the determination of Life Dynamics to destroy us".
Ongoing activities
LDI operates a number of simultaneous projects, often with a separate web site targeting that aspect of the group's work.
*ClinicWorker.com: LDI encourages anti-abortion activists who congregate at abortion facilities to promote ClinicWorker.com, a site urging abortion clinic staff to report wrongdoing, such as statutory rape, income tax evasion, Medicaid fraud, health and safety risks, and insurance fraud to authorities. LDI admits that part of the goal of this project is to sow discord and strife within abortion facilities. ClinicWorker.com is promoted by many anti-abortion web sites, but unlike other LDI projects has not generated much mainstream or pro-choice attention. Vicki Saporta, Executive Director of the
National Abortion Federation
The National Abortion Federation (NAF) is a professional association of abortion providers. NAF members include private and non-profit clinics, Planned Parenthood affiliates, women's health centers, physicians' offices, and hospitals who together ...
, called ClinicWorker.com another attempt by Crutcher to drive abortion providers out of business, and said, "His attempts at these methods have not been successful in the past, and we're not concerned about his success in the future."
*AbortionInjury.com: AbortionInjury.com offers referrals to attorneys to represent women injured by abortion.
*Abortion Malpractice Program ("Ab/Mal"): a collection of services LDI provides to attorneys representing plaintiffs filing suit against abortion providers. The services range from advertising materials for attracting clients to linking with co-counsel. Life Dynamics Inc. launched this program in 1993 by mailing a 72-page booklet on how to pursue suits against abortion providers to 4,000 attorneys in the United States,
[Rice, Charles. (March 3, 1994).]
The Malpractice Option
" ''The Wanderer''. Retrieved August 23, 2006. and followed up with a two-day continuing education conference for attorneys the following year.
[Lewin, Tamar. (April 5, 1995).]
" ''The New York Times''. Retrieved August 23, 2006. Crutcher says that the mission of the Ab/Mal program is not only to provide legal redress, but also "to force abortionists out of business by driving up their insurance rates".
Previous projects
* ''Bottom Feeder'' was a 16-page
cartoon
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...
tract
Tract may refer to:
Geography and real estate
* Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots
* Land lot or tract, a section of land
* Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census
...
filled with humor about abortion practitioners which LDI mailed to 30,000
medical student
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...
s. Abortion rights activists criticized ''Bottom Feeder'' because of its tone, and also because it was mailed out in 1993, the same year abortion provider
Dr. David Gunn was murdered.
Medical Students for Choice was founded, in part, as a response to ''Bottom Feeder''. ''Bottom Feeder'' also angered anti-abortion activists who criticized what they perceived as the "distasteful and ... pornographic" nature of the booklet.
*"Project Choice" was a
survey LDI sent to abortion physicians about their experiences.
The "Project Choice" survey was mailed to approximately 1,000 abortion providers, and with
telephone
A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...
and
postcard
A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare.
In some places, one can send a postcard f ...
follow-up, attained a 30% response rate.{{citation needed, date=July 2022
References
Anti-abortion organizations in the United States
Organizations established in 1992
Non-profit organizations based in Texas
Denton, Texas