A BBC article on Islam explains that abortion is generally forbidden by the religion, but is acceptable if having the baby will put the mother’s life in danger.

Anita L. Allen, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, has taught about contemporary ethics and bioethics and is the author of The New Ethics: A Guided Tour of the Twenty-First-Century Moral Landscape (Miramax Books, 2004). In 2010, she was appointed by President Obama to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.

Nancy Audet is director of communications for the Family Planning Association of Maine.

Read an opinion piece by sociologist Florence A. Ruderman from the September 1, 2005 New York Times about a pharmacist who refused to fill her father’s prescription for morphine when he was dying of cancer and in severe pain, and how that’s affected her views of pharmacists’ responsibilities.

Read a March 12, 2013, article on a pro-life news website about Missouri’s House of Representatives passing a bill that would exempt anyone from participating in medical services that are contrary to his or her religious beliefs.

Read a February 27, 2013, article at Salon.com about hurdles to obtaining emergency contraception.

Read a March 5, 2013, article in Catholic Education Daily about the 2013 Health Care Conscience Rights Act.

Lisa Miller is Professor of Psychology and Education and Director of Clinical Psychology at Teachers College at Columbia University. She has studied the spiritual development of adolescents and has found that having a spiritual grounding – believing in a higher power – can help teenagers deal with crises, resist peer pressure and stay away from drugs […]

Diana Winston is the director of mindfulness education at the University of California, Los Angeles Semel Institute’s Mindful Awareness Research Center. She has taught mindfulness practices for more than 25 years and published Fully Present: The Science, Art and Practice of Mindfulness in 2010.