Catherine Glenn Foster (James Wilson Fellowship Alumna ’16) joins Anchoring Truths Podcast host Garrett Snedeker to discuss the state of the pro-life movement in America. Foster conveys the challenges that arise from outlawing abortion, encouraging pro-lifers to shape the law as well as help and redirect young moms and families in their communities. The podcast also delves into Foster’s personal experience as a post-abortive woman and how that experience provides her with conviction to build a culture of life from natural birth to natural death.
Catherine Glenn Foster, M.A., J.D., is a constitutional attorney and a mother. She has litigated precedent-setting § 1983 and other constitutional questions, abortion and maternal health, health and safety regulations, False Claims Act healthcare and Medicaid fraud, euthanasia and assisted suicide, denial of medical care and malpractice, First Amendment rights, genetic engineering issues, Freedom of Information Act and open records issues, and healthcare and corporate conscience protections. She counsels on contract, employment, estate and probate, open records, and real estate law.
Foster has authored and testified on numerous domestic, foreign, and international legislation and initiatives, many based on her litigation, as well as white papers, articles, and op-eds on current litigation, choice of law and other legal issues, science, medicine, international human rights, and finance relating to policy making, media, and cultural debates.
Foster has frequently testified before and advised the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, and other federal and state bodies and representatives. She is an experienced keynote speaker and has spoken on and worked throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia on legal and life-related issues, including debates and lectures at legal seminars on philosophy, political theory, history, constitutional jurisprudence, and public policy analysis. She and her work have appeared extensively in national media and have received awards, including one for an article on human rights relating to embryo adoption.
Foster served for six years as President & CEO of Americans United for Life, America’s original national pro-life organization and the nation’s premier pro-life legal team. AUL’s legal strategists were involved in every pro-life case before the U.S. Supreme Court from Roe v. Wade to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and pioneered the state-based model legislative strategy, which worked to save lives right away while undermining the so-called “reliance” interest adopted by the Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992): the false idea that women “rely” on abortion to succeed in American society. Under Foster’s leadership, AUL tripled in size, celebrated both its 50th anniversary and the overturn of Roe, achieved the enactment of more than 100 laws to protect fundamental human rights, and pursued and refined strategies to value and advance the rights, interests, and perspectives of everyone involved in human rights conflicts such as abortion.
Foster also spent seven years with Alliance Defending Freedom at its Washington D.C. offices, where she was litigation counsel advocating for the dignity of all human life in federal and state trial and appellate courts, and led ADF efforts in the areas of euthanasia, assisted suicide, excellence in care, advance directives, and related topics, as well as training attorneys nationwide on how to litigate such cases.
Foster then founded and managed a law practice focusing on respect for the sanctity of human life and support for like-minded organizations; served as General Counsel for healthcare providers, nonprofit research and policy organizations, and churches; and led Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA as Executive Director. Her other clients included Alliance Defending Freedom, Charlotte Lozier Institute, and Concerned Women for America.
Foster serves as a member of the board of directors for And Then There Were None, Christian Legal Society D.C. Metro Chapter, Democrats for Life of America, and Rockville Women’s Center, where she served as President for seven years, and as an advisory board member for the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity.
Foster earned her J.D. at Georgetown University Law Center and also holds an M.A. in French from the University of South Florida, with a thesis on the effects of the interwar French mandate in Syria and Lebanon on the modern Middle East, and a B.A. in History and French from Berry College.
Foster is admitted to the bar in Virginia and Washington D.C., as well as the U.S. Supreme Court; the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 1st, 5th, 8th, and 9th Circuits; and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. She is a member of the American Bar Association and the Federal Bar Association, an inaugural member of the Federalist Society Founders Club, Senior Fellow in Legal Policy at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, and a fellow with the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding.
You may follow Catherine Glenn Foster on Twitter/X at @cateici and at CatherineGlennFoster.com
